


Snow and Silence

by elliemoran



Series: Snow and Silence [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Claustrophobia, Gun Violence, Guns, Hand Jobs, Hypothermia, M/M, Swearing, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-29 06:47:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliemoran/pseuds/elliemoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When reclusive Eren Yeager finds a half-frozen stranger on his front porch, he has no idea how much the encounter will come to change his life. And yet, even as his fascination grows, so do the mysteries around the enigmatic man. Who exactly is Levi, and can Eren trust him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Silence Before the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> My original concept for this came after I found my old copy of Linda Howard's White Out, and I started wondering what would happen if you were to put Levi and Eren in a similar story (especially the naked under a blanket bit). The whole thing grew from there.
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter is more of a prologue - you will most likely notice there is no real snow yet, or any Levi. Nor is there any smut at all. 
> 
> All of that is coming, I promise.

It was going to snow.

As he pushed open the heavy barn door and stepped out into the bitterly cold winter air, Eren Yeager wondered what exactly the one and only local weatherman had been drinking that morning. The horse-faced idiot obviously couldn’t have been sober when he’d come up with the piece of fiction he’d tried to pass off as today’s forecast.

_Clear sunny day, my ass_

In the hour or so Eren had spent mucking out stalls, the patchwork of towering clouds that had filled the sky all morning had solidified into a formless blanket, obliterating any last patch of blue that might have attempted to shine through. An ominous charcoal grey filled the sky behind the main house, bleeding in gradient shades across to the foggy near white horizon on the far side of the lake. They’d had very little snow so far this season, only enough to leave patches of white in what shadowed corners the sun didn’t touch, and puddles of melt water everywhere that it did. From the looks of the sky and the strength of the blisteringly cold wind that was attempting to freeze his ears off, Eren figured there was a good chance winter was about ready to let loose with a full scale blizzard. Which of course meant that the power was going to go out – because it always did – and it also meant that the road to and from town was about to become very nearly impassable.

The power going wouldn't be more than an irritation. The Shiganshina Ranch had more than enough generators to keep the barn and house warm and functional, though some of the choices Hanji had made over what would and would not run off of the generators would forever baffle Eren.

But then that was fairly typical for anything involving his eccentric adoptive mother.

No, what had worried Eren enough that he'd tried to talk himself into believing that asinine forecast was what a snow storm would do to the roads. This part of the state was usually well prepared for winter so from the highway onwards there usually wasn’t an issue, but the private road that wound around the lake from the ranch couldn’t be salted and was covered in ice patches all winter long. And then once you got past the lake road, there were still miles more of flat, dormant farmland with nothing to block the wind from blowing away any salt the city tried to put down, or from stirring up ground snow enough to lower visibility to near zero.

Scowling up at the offending sky, Eren felt the uncomfortable mix of dread and frustration he’d been putting off all day settle firmly deep in his gut. Over two decades of dealing with the capricious lake-effect weather – and twelve years of being in the same class as the idiot – should have given him enough experience to know putting faith in Jean's forecast wouldn't end well, but Eren had really wanted to be wrong today.

Huffing out a breath, he told himself to stop moping. It was going to snow, he had to figure out how to deal with it – or rather, how to deal with his foster sister's overprotectiveness – and letting himself freeze to death while he stared at the sky was not going to help. Ignoring the heavy weight in his stomach, Eren wrestled the crossbeam into place across the barn doors behind him and started walking towards the house, stomping his feet to bring the feeling back to his toes. He hadn’t quite made it off of the stone ramp leading down from the barn’s main floor when he heard someone scrambling up the bank from the lower level.

Stepping over, he stretched out a hand to help pull his usually graceful sister up the last of the rocky slope. As she hopped up onto the path next to him, Eren forgot some of his uneasiness and he found himself having to work very hard not to let his amusement show on his face. In the winter, Mikasa usually bore a striking resemblance to a very round penguin. She hated the cold with a passion, and piled on as many layers as she could manage to get on at once.

“All done?” Eren adjusted his pace to his sister’s waddle as the siblings started back towards the large A-frame main house.

“Yes. I went ahead and fed the cats too.”

“Thanks.” Cats didn’t generally like Eren, and feeding the semi-feral population that lived on the ranch was one of his least favorite chores. His foster brother usually took care of them, but Armin had gone with Hanji on her latest research trip so Eren and Mikasa were splitting his work.

The only sound was the crunch of frozen grass beneath their feet as the siblings walked on in comfortable silence.

“What were you glaring at earlier?”

“What?” Eren glanced over and had to look away quickly, smothering smile all over again. Mikasa had had to twist her whole upper body around to see him. The fur trim edging the deep cowl of her hood blocked what little vision she must have had, between the hat pulled low over her brow and the scarf she’d wound around her face. “Is that the new coat Armin got you?”

“Yes. Stop smirking, and don’t change the subject.” She leaned in and shoved him lightly with her shoulder. “You looked upset earlier, what happened?”

She was always far too observant for Eren’s own good. And he wasn't quite ready to approach the main topic yet. “Nothing special. I was just thinking your boyfriend needs to find a new line of work, maybe telling fortunes. He’s about as accurate.”

“Jean’s not my boyfriend. And since when did you listen to the forecast anyway? You usually make sure to be in another room when he’s on.”

Eren hunched his shoulders reflexively. She was right, and he’d deliberately watched the morning show on the TV in Hanji’s room so Mikasa wouldn’t realize he’d purposely put himself through those torturous five minutes. He didn't know why he'd bothered trying to hide it, really. He'd always been pretty much incapable of keeping anything to himself - especially from Armin or Mikasa. 

No matter how hard he tried, he’d forget to keep it to himself and end up spilling the secret, one way or another.

As he'd just done.  

Their boots made loud hollow thumps as they climbed the broad wooden steps to the porch spanning the length of the house. On the top step Eren hesitated, watching Mikasa turn and maneuver backwards onto the wide porch bench.

His mind raced. He wondered if there was any point in hiding his concern anymore. He'd thought it would make it easier to convince her not to worry if she thought _he_ wasn't worried, but if she'd realized - as she probably had - how much he’d fussed over the weather that morning then that plan was already shot.

Abruptly deciding that there was no point in waiting and giving himself another chance to let something slip, Eren leaned against one of the pillars, concentrating on keeping his voice as even as he could manage. “I think I’ll drive into town to pick up Armin and Hanji.”

Mikasa had pushed back her hood and was busy unwrapping her scarf, but her hands paused at his words. "Just like that, Eren?" She grinned, clearly expecting him to be laughing too as she glanced up at him, her eyes full of amusement.

Eren had figured she might take it as a joke, but he still had to tamp down a small flash of irritation. He turned his head away. The porch was silent for a long second, and Eren focused his eyes on the white vapor of his breath solidifying in front of his face, not sure what to say.

“I’m sure both of them would get a kick out of piling on and trying to ride the bike, even in this weather." As Mikasa started speaking, Eren turned back so he could see her face. There was no trace of amusement left, her pretty eyes dark and serious as they studied him. "The dogs would probably enjoy it too. But where do you plan on putting all their luggage, and the other junk Hanji has most definitely brought back with her?”

Eren huffed out a breath. He tried to maintain eye contact, couldn't, and decided to focus his gaze on the reflection of the trees in the window just behind Mikasa’s head. “I’ll take the van, of course”. He ignored the increasing panic in his chest and forced himself to speak with as little concern as he could manage. “You know how much you hate driving in the snow. I always got better marks than you when we had driver’s ed in the winter.” He shifted uncomfortably. “And after all, it’s not like I can go the rest of my life without ever getting in a car again.”

“I think it might- it may not be the best idea.” Mikasa spoke carefully, gently, as if she were considering each word before she let it out. “You haven’t been able to even get in the van for years. You haven't driven anything but a bike since- since high school. And what if you- if something goes wrong…" she bit her lip, her voice trailing off.

As the silence lengthened, Eren tried to think of anything he could say. Mikasa was right. But then so was he. She really did hate driving in snow, and dealing with ice, in any form, was one of the very few things she did not do well.

He _hated_ the thought of her having to drive through the storm. 

And yet, at this point, the only way he would win this battle would be to turn around right now, walk straight to the garage, and get in the van. The keys would be under the seat and if he could calmly get in and shut the door he knew Mikasa would let him go. But somehow he couldn’t quite make his feet move in that direction.

In the end he pushed away from the pillar and dropped down next to her on the bench. As they sat in silence watching the darkening skies swirl over the lake, Eren felt the tension between them ease.

With a sigh, Mikasa scooted closer, leaning her head against his shoulder. “You know, I’ve been practicing - driving in the snow I mean.” She let herself relax into his side. “I bet I’m better than you ever were by now.”

Eren wrapped his arm around her shoulders, resting his cheek on the top of her head. He felt a fresh flash of amusement at how round and squishy she was in her layers and layers of sweaters and padded coat. “Practicing where, in your head?”

“Uh huh. I think I’ve got the hang of it now."

“Isn’t that what you said the last time we went skating on the lake? And I seem to remember you wound up on your ass about two seconds after we hit the ice.”

“That was different.” She stretched out her arms and legs in front of her before curling into his warmth again. “And besides, ice skating is unnatural.”  

Eren snorted out a laugh, letting the silence envelop them both again as they gazed out over the half frozen lake. He knew he’d already lost this one, but… “I could do it, Mikasa”

She pulled away and used her double-mittened hands to turn his face so they were eye to eye. “I know you could, Eren, and I really love the fact that you’d put yourself through that for me, but please, let me pretend to be the big sister on this one?”

He made himself smile and bumped his forehead to hers before standing up. “Yes, big sister.” He leaned against the wall and started toeing off his boots. “But go now so you can avoid the storm. And if it gets bad promise you’ll all get a room in town for the night.”

She smiled. “Yes, little brother.”

Eren did his best to suppress his lingering worry, and deliberately concentrated on the sight his sister made struggling with the bulk of her coat as she bent to unlace her boots. “You should go for this whole beached whale look more often, I'm sure your boyfriend would think it's cute.” He laughed, catching the beanie she threw at him.

“As long as I’m warm, I don’t care.” She stepped out of her shoes and set them neatly underneath the bench. Eren’s laughter died as he recognized the smile that had appeared on her face. “You know Eren, I really think you should just get it over with."

He knew he'd regret asking, but Eren couldn't help himself. "Get what over with?"

"You really need to tell Jean how much he means to you. We all know you're in love with him.”

Eren spluttered. “I do _not_ … I can't stand that…” He was awkwardly hopping on one booted foot with his other boot halfway off as she padded past him to the doorway.

“It’s so obvious, you never stop talking about him. Just confess already. Or should I tell him?”

“Mikasa!”

She shot him a grin as she let the screen door slam behind her.


	2. Blizzard Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren has a harder time dealing with the storm than he'd expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, chapter 2. 
> 
>  
> 
> I'm editing myself, so any bad grammar/punctuation/me going off on a tangent is entirely my fault. 
> 
> I hope everybody enjoy this anyways.

Eren didn’t whimper as he lay face down in the center of his bed, but that was pride. He was so very, very tired. More than anything he wanted to be curled up under his blankets, lights out, fast asleep. Unconscious.

His overactive mind had other ideas.

As he flipped over to stare at the ceiling, Eren heard the clock downstairs chime twice. He groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face. On top of dealing with his own usual workload and covering for both Armin and Mikasa, he’d also had to lock down the entire estate for the storm. Add to that the fact that he’d been worrying over the weather and his sister since before dawn that morning, and Eren was beyond exhausted.

And yet here he was, very much awake at two in the morning.

The storm hadn’t actually hit the Shinganshina area until the evening, long after Mikasa had already sent him a text letting him know she’d reached the Trost airport and had successfully loaded up the van with Hanji, Armin, the dogs, and what Mikasa had ominously described as “Hanji’s new toy”, but the storm had looked close enough that they’d decided to stay in Trost for the night.

So naturally the moment he’d finished wrestling the spare fuel barrels around to the last of the generators, Eren had stripped down to his boxers, grabbed a couple of beers and a box of pop tarts for dinner and sprawled out on the living room couch to watch gory B horror movies – all things that generally resulted in a pinch-mouthed Mikasa hovering at his side ready to stop him from heading any further down the slippery slope of depravity and poor diet.

He’d been tired enough that he’d only just managed to keep his eyes open through to the end credits of _Day of the Giant Cannibals_ , so when he saw the thick waves of snow drifting down he figured he’d had enough of rebellion for the day.

Hot water was one of the things Hanji didn’t consider vital during power outages, so a very sleepy Eren had forced himself to take a shower before heading to bed, knowing the power would likely be out in the morning, and sponge baths ranked high on his list of least favorite things.

He’d stumbled through the dark as he dropped into bed, and he’d been on the edge of sleep when his eyes had drifted over to the windows that filled the majority of two of his walls. The blizzard had intensified to the point that in the dim ambient light the windows looked opaque, wavering slightly as the wind tossed a solid barrier of snow in swirls and dashes against the glass.

His barely conscious mind had registered solid walls where there should be clear space and sounded the alarm.

As the first licks of panic had set his heart racing and his stomach churning, Eren had tried to recall the breathing exercises that Armin had taught him. He’d tried to tell himself he was being stupid. He _knew_ the only thing pressing against the glass was very cold air and snow, he could open a window and jump out if he didn't mind freezing to death, and possibly breaking his legs. The walls behind his bed were exactly where they should be. The ceiling was just as far above his head as it had always been. The door was not locked. He was not trapped.

The blanket was not getting heavier.

When he’d realized he was closer to hyperventilating than calming down, he’d jumped out of bed and flipped every switch and turned on every lamp he had in the room. Standing in the doorway from his bathroom and staring across to the windows as he clutched a flashlight in each hand, he’d felt the trembling ease. The light shining out through the glass penetrated the snow enough to dispel the illusion of solidity, and allowed whatever that part of his mind was that he could not seem to reason with to register that the danger it had sensed was not actually there.

His heartbeat approached normal, and apart from the lingering clammy sweat all over his body he’d thought the attack had eased enough that he might have a chance at falling asleep before the power cut and sent him back into darkness.

Which, of course, was not the way things generally worked. Not for him, in any case. Four long, painful hours later and he was still trying to shut his mind off long enough to fall asleep. The power was still on, which was a miracle, but that really only meant he was constantly wondering when it was going to go.

Giving up, Eren sat upright and pulled his legs to his chest. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he scowled at the windows.

And that was when the lights flickered and died.

Eren lasted maybe 10 seconds before yanking the blanket off the floor where he’d thrown it, grabbing a pillow and his trusty flashlights and heading for the door. He didn’t bother suppressing his sigh of relief when the handle turned easily under his hand and the door opened unchecked, but he tried not to dwell on it.

The second-floor bedrooms filled the back half of the house, opening onto a landing that stretched across the width of the building and overlooked the vast common area on the ground floor. As Eren stepped out of his room, he looked out over the long, polished banister to the wall of windows that started a few feet above the front door and stretched all the way up to the high peak of the gabled roof. The light from the fire he’d set before attempting his mini-rebellion illuminated just enough that he could see into the depths of the swirling snow outside, and he felt the tension in his shoulders ease. 

He knew he’d made the right choice, but he wished he could get over the feeling of having lost a battle, yet again.

Still, he was breathing easier than he had for hours as he padded down the last of the stairs and stepped out onto the heated black stone floor. Wrapping his blanket around his shoulders, he walked across to the brown leather sofas that formed a half circle around the immense fireplace, and threw himself on the largest couch. He briefly contemplated pulling out another movie and continuing where he’d left off earlier, but decided he was too comfortable to shift to the other side of the room - where another circle of couches faced the entertainment system that Hanji considered important enough to power by generator, over lights or hot water.

The house was silent apart from the crackle of the fire, the steady tick of the grandfather clock in the shadows of the staircase, and the barely audible howling of the wind outside the heavily insulated walls. He stared up into the shadowy beams of the slanted ceiling far above him, tugged the pillow into a comfortable position under his head and happily, _finally_ , felt himself relaxing into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter picks up where this one left off. A certain other character finally makes an appearance.
> 
>  
> 
> I would be really really happy to hear any thoughts or feedback. Really.


	3. Blizzard Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "In the freezing temperatures outside the stranger shouldn’t have lasted more than 15 minutes after going into the water.
> 
> For him to have stayed upright long enough to make it to the house was almost unbelievable. But here he was. He should be dead, but he wasn’t, and as Eren looked down into the stranger’s pale, unconscious face, he felt an almost overpowering resolve spread new strength through his body. He refused to allow this man to die."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't intended to finish this chapter till this weekend. But hey, who needs sleep?
> 
> Again, I am the only proofreader, so all mistakes are mine. I do appreciate any feedback, here or on my tumblr (my username is afternoonteawithme).

Eren was nearly asleep when a sound tugged him back to consciousness. His first coherent thought was that maybe Hanji had decided to drag everyone home through the storm. His second was that Mikasa was going to be very unhappy when she saw the evidence he’d been planning to clean up in the morning, and his third was that even if his sister had been unable to convince Hanji to stay put, Armin had been there too, and he was a master at keeping their foster mother from doing anything too reckless.

So even as he felt sleep drifting away, Eren resolutely kept his eyes clamped shut, hoping he could force himself back under once it turned out to be nothing. For a moment he thought he was right and he’d imagined whatever it was, but then he heard it again – two muffled thumps a few seconds apart.

Whatever it was certainly didn’t sound like a herd of cattle crossing the porch, so it probably wasn’t Hanji.

Opening his eyes, Eren shrugged the blanket off and sat up. He could see nothing through the thin net curtains covering the windows on either side of the front door. A flash of light in his peripheral vision had him whipping his head around, only to relax a moment later as he recognized the creepily glowing gaze of Armin’s cat. Moe was perched on the long countertop that divided the kitchen from the living room, and the ugly house cat stared disapprovingly back at Eren, before shifting its abnormally large eyes to the front door.

The devil cat had a healthy sense of self preservation, so Eren doubted it would be anywhere in the vicinity if something like a bear or a wolf was currently standing on the porch. It couldn’t be a human - they were miles from any main road, the closest homes were on the other side of the half frozen lake, and while a military base did run along a large portion of the Shinganshina Ranch border line, vast stretches of forest and wilderness lay between that part of the property and the main house. It had to be a branch being thrown around by the wind.

It hadn't sounded like a branch though.

Eren eased off of the couch, grabbing the heavy steel poker from the fireplace before moving as silently as he could to the window by the front door. He pulled the curtain back slightly. He could see the dim shapes of the porch pillars against the grey murk, nothing else.

Shifting to stand to one side, Eren gripped the poker tightly in one hand and reached out with the other to slowly twist the door knob.

It had barely finished turning when something heavy pushed against the door and yanked the handle from his grasp. The jolt had him jumping back and instinctively slamming the poker downwards - before twisting his aim aside at the last second when he registered that the object was a human, and then that the human was in no shape to be attacking anyone.

He sucked in a shocked breath and let the poker clatter to the floor. The person had fallen face down halfway across the doorframe. He wasn’t moving. Dropping to his knees, Eren pulled at the ice encrusted shoulder, turning the body over as gently as he could. He put a hand to the stranger’s throat. The pulse was far too slow and faint, but it was there. The shallow puff of air he felt when he held his ear against the man’s mouth had his shoulders sagging in relief.

Eren looked around wildly. For the first time he registered the ice and snow blowing in through the wide open door and piling up around them.

Shifting his position, he slid his arms beneath man’s back and pulled, bracing his feet against the unexpected weight of the limp figure. At the last heave he felt his feet slip out from under him on the wet floor and he landed hard on his back, the man's dead weight half on top of him.

He struggled back up to his feet. Trembling a little from both the cold air streaming in and the urgency rushing through his body, Eren slipped back to the doorway and forced himself to take a moment to try and peer through the formless grey of the night blizzard for any sign of anyone else, frozen or not.

Nothing moved apart from the snow. Eren very much hoped the man had been alone.

After wrestling the door firmly shut, Eren rushed back to the man’s side. He was completely coated in a layer of almost solid ice from his boots to about halfway up his chest. Wherever he’d come from, he must have stepped into the lake at some point. His face was tinged blue, and he wasn’t shivering.

In the freezing temperatures outside the stranger shouldn’t have lasted more than 15 minutes after going into the water.

For him to have stayed upright long enough to make it to the house was almost unbelievable. But here he was. He should be dead, but he wasn’t, and as Eren looked down into the stranger’s pale, unconscious face, he felt an almost overpowering resolve spread new strength through his body. He refused to allow this man to die.

His first priority was to get the man’s temperature up, but everything he was wearing was thick with ice, so just wrapping him in a blanket wasn’t going to cut it.

Eren pulled off the man’s outer layers. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the gloves and boots were insulated enough to have kept his hands and feet dry. His fingers and toes looked a healthier white than his face, and they didn’t have the waxy texture that usually indicated frostbite, so he hoped that wasn’t going to be an issue.

Working as quickly as he could, knowing he had to be careful not to jostle the limbs too much or he’d risk stopping the man’s heart entirely, Eren stripped off the stranger’s shirt and pants. The man was wearing thermal underthings - he’d been prepared for cold, but apart from the boots nothing was waterproof so everything he was wearing was now draining what heat he had left. Sliding over to the kitchen area in his wet socks, Eren grabbed the shears and – walking more carefully on the way back – used them to cut the last of the frozen clothing off.

In the rush and the flickering light of the distant fire he didn’t bother trying to determine if the shadows that stretched across the man’s torso were bruises, but he was mostly sure they were. Unless they were dealing with actual broken ribs, severe hypothermia was the biggest danger right now. If he did have a rib broken, there wasn’t anything Eren could do but try and move him as gently as possible.

Shoving aside the piles of wet clothing, Eren scrambled to his feet and ran to the couch he’d been attempting to sleep on. This time when he slipped and crashed down onto his knees, Eren paused just long enough to strip off his socks before jumping back up.

Snatching up his blanket, Eren dashed back and laid it down just outside the giant puddle that had collected all around the front door. As smoothly as he could, Eren wedged his arms beneath the man’s shoulders and pulled until he could get his head onto the blanket, and then awkwardly worked the fabric underneath the still figure until the man was mostly on it, rather than floor.

Grasping the edge, he used the blanket to drag the man across the room to the fireplace, close enough to feel the heat, and then raced to Armin’s room - Hanji's would have been impossible to find anything in, and his and Mikasa's were upstairs. He stripped the heavy blanket and sheet from the bed, dumped them by the door, and then rushed to Armin’s bathroom.

Only to pull up short at the door.

Armin’s bathroom was long, narrow, and had no windows. In normal light and with Armin around, Eren never went any further in than the doorway. In the dark all he could see was a deeply shadowed tunnel with no sign of an opening at the other end, and his feet felt like they were glued to the floor.

He growled in frustration and braced his hands on either side of the doorway, willing himself forward. He couldn’t understand why his stupid legs wouldn’t just _move_.

With an exasperated groan he turned on his heel and ran to Armin’s bedside table. Pulling the drawer completely out, he dumped out the contents. He’d been sure Armin would have a flashlight, and breathed a sigh of relief as he watched it bounce out onto the bed.

Grasping the familiar silver barrel, he stepped back to the bathroom doorway. He was trembling with the strength of the urgency running through him, and his hands made the light bounce wildly around the room, reflecting off of the silver fixtures and white surfaces but leaving deep shadows at every edge and corner. The rack he needed was only just inside the room. He could do it.

Eren focused his gaze on the center of the flashlight’s unsteady beam. He felt his heart thumping loudly in his chest. He stepped into the room, placing each foot deliberately. It seemed to take far longer than he knew it did, but his breath was starting to hitch when he finally reached the shelf. Grabbing the stack of towels, he bolted. Almost gasping, he scooped up the pile he’d left by the door, and ran back to the stranger.

Careful not to jostle the man’s limbs, he patted him down with one of the towels, getting him as dry as possible before throwing Armin’s blanket over him and tucking the sheet around his head.

He raced to the kitchen and stuck one of the towels in the microwave, tapping his foot, desperately trying to recall any more details from the first aid lessons Armin had made all three of them take back in high school while he waited the agonizing minute for the microwave to ding. He carried the scorching towel back to the living room, indifferent to the heat against his palms. Careful to use the sheet to prevent any direct contact, he wrapped the towel around the man’s head, tugging it down so his ears were covered.

By the time he finished tucking in the towel and one side of the blanket, Eren thought the stranger’s face seemed marginally closer to white than blue. He still wasn’t shivering though, and that was a very bad sign.

Dropping to his knees and lifting the open edge of the blanket, he stopped and muttered an oath as he realized his t-shirt and sweatpants were completely soaked through. Impatiently peeling them off, Eren hesitated at his boxers, before hooking his thumb in the waistband and stripping down to his skin. The man needed body heat far more than he needed Eren to worry about modesty.

Slipping under the blanket, Eren pulled the stranger onto his side with his back to the fire so they lay face to face, and wrapped himself around the man.

Wrapping his arms around other man’s rib cage, he slid his hands up the freezing back to press on either side of his neck. Keeping the stranger's icy cold hands tucked between them, he draped one leg over the other man’s hips and pulled him in tight, so they pressed against each other in a long line from shoulder to toe.

As they lay there, Eren felt the frantic energy that had driven him drain away. He’d done everything he could do, all that was left was pressing his own heat into the frozen body.

Only when they were essentially face to face like this did Eren realize that the man was at least six or seven inches shorter. Eren’s eye line was slightly higher, and he was still able to keep one foot tucked beneath the other man's. He’d been heavy, but that likely came from the densely packed muscle Eren had felt beneath his hands. He couldn't remember if muscle was good for enduring hypothermia, or if it would be better if the man had had an extra layer of fat. He hoped it was muscle, because he hadn't seen all that much fat - whatever else the man did, he must get plenty of exercise doing it. 

His eyes studying the face only a few inches from his, Eren wondered what kind of personality lay behind the pale skin and thin, slashing black brows. He lifted one hand and tugged the towel back into place around the man’s head, then brought it around to test the temperature of the man's cheek. His skin was still so cold.

Eren didn’t think he’d ever wanted anything as much as he wanted his heat to spread into the body in his arms.

When Eren finally felt the first shivers start beneath his hands the relief that spread through him was so strong it brought tears to his eyes.

“Shivering is good, shivering is very good.” The words were a reassurance to himself. 

The shivering came in waves, and increased in intensity until it seemed that every bone in both of their bodies was vibrating. Eren tightened his arms, and lifted one hand to press the other man’s face into his shoulder.

After what seemed like forever, it eased.

He actually felt the man regain consciousness, as the limp body suddenly seemed to be holding itself rather than resting on Eren. When the arms tucked against his chest started to move, Eren shifted the man onto his back.

The stranger’s eyes were blinking open.

“Do you feel ok?” Of course he didn’t. “Does anything hurt?”

There was no answer. The blurry gaze was looking up at Eren, but didn’t seem to be focusing.

“Can you understand me?”

The man was silent, but his hand came up and touched the towel around his head. His brows lowered and he suddenly looked concerned.  
Eren pushed the towel and sheet away. He stroked the man’s black hair, and leaned over so he was directly above the other man’s unfocused eyes.

“It’s ok, you’re safe now.”

The black eyes seemed to sharpen, and Eren found himself holding his breath.

“Where is this.” The voice was raspy and low.

“Ah, this is Shinganshina Ranch. Near Trost.” The man kept his eyes on Eren, but Eren wasn’t sure how much he actually understood. His pupils still seemed wrong. “How did you get here?”

The brows came together slightly and the man tried to sit up. He was weak enough that Eren was able to push him back down to the blanket, though it took enough force that Eren knew if the man was any less dazed he couldn’t have budged him.

“I have to go.”

“There’s a big storm going outside, you won’t be able to get anywhere just yet.” Eren’s earlier fear returned and he breathed in sharply. “Was there someone else? Did you have someone with you in the storm?”

It might have been Eren’s wishful thinking, but the man's eyes seemed to clear, and he looked almost alert as he looked up at Eren and shook his head. “There wasn’t anybody else.”

“Ok.” The new tension in Eren’s shoulders eased. “What’s your name?”

But it was as if that moment of clarity had been too much, and the man’s eyes lost focus completely. As he looked around the room Eren thought he wasn’t really taking anything in. When he tried to get up again, Eren knew he was right. The man was disoriented, but he was conscious, and as long as Eren kept him from re-freezing himself, he’d be just fine.

He kept soothing the stranger every time he tried to get up, until finally the man seemed to relax again. Eren was exhausted, but insanely grateful when he leaned over to check and found the man's eyes clear, meeting his directly. 

“Levi.”

Eren cocked his head and wondered if he’d misheard.

“My name is Levi.” One corner of the man’s mouth crooked in something that might be considered a smile.

Eren’s eyes widened. “Oh, I see. My name is Eren…”

But the man’s eyelids had covered his eyes, and his breathing eased. He was asleep.

Eren dropped his head down to the blanket, almost weak with relief and exhaustion. That almost-smile – he wondered what sort of personality he’d be dealing with in the morning. And then he felt a grin spread across his face as he realized. The stranger was going to be ok.

The grin froze as Levi suddenly turned on his side, facing him, his arms wrapping around Eren’s chest as he burrowed back into him.

After a moment Eren draped an arm over the other man. The exhaustion taking over, he felt himself slip over the edge, and finally let sleep take him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Levi and Eren finally meet. Sort of. Next chapter ups the rating... also finally.


	4. Blizzard Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is out of danger, and Eren realizes the situation he's put himself into - a little too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *changes rating to M*
> 
> *sweats nervously*

Eren wasn’t sure what woke him. As he drifted in a comfortable fog, he idly thought it might have been a log popping in the fireplace. Maybe the uncomfortable floor.

Most likely it was the hand petting his ass.

Eren’s eyes shot open. He stared into the stranger’s – no, into Levi’s face. The pale brow was slightly furrowed, but black lashes lay still and unmoving against Levi's skin. If it weren’t for the fingertips drawing lazy patterns on Eren’s butt he would have thought the man was still asleep. He felt the heat of a blush spread across his cheeks as he realized that he was already half erect. If his sleepy memories weren’t a dream, the stroking might possibly have been going on for some time. 

For the first time since he’d stripped them both and climbed under the blanket, Eren realized exactly how intimate their position was. He’d never been unaware of the fact that they were both naked and pressed closely together, but in the first overwhelming drive to keep the man from dying, and then later when his own exhaustion and relief had sent him to sleep, he hadn’t actually processed the thought through.

He'd draped a leg over Levi’s hip at some point. Eren’s erection was pressing against Levi’s inner thigh. It was probably time to move.

As he shifted his weight backwards, Levi stirred. The nails that had been tracing circles on the bottom curve of his butt lifted and Eren felt fingers trail up to stroke the base of his spine. His body jerked. The sensation was almost uncomfortable, and at the same time sent a wave of heat through his body.

He forced out a slow, controlled breath and tried to bring himself back under control. He was actually surprised he was reacting so easily. In hindsight he thought one of the reasons it hadn’t occurred to him to see the provocativeness of the situation was because he wouldn’t have thought it would affect him all that much. He’d never been highly sexual - sex had been ok, but nothing more than a brief release of tension. 

So being turned on by just this guy’s fingertips was not something he would have expected.

Deciding this was not the best time to worry over trivialities. Eren started to untangle their legs. He’d gotten barely an inch of space between them when Levi’s eyes blinked open.

Concern instantly swept away his own discomfort as he realized Levi still seemed disoriented, and for the first time Eren noticed the slight flush riding high on the man’s cheekbones. Pressing a hand to Levi’s forehead, he was relieved when the temperature seemed to be something approaching normal. Levi’s internal thermometer would likely be mixed up for a while, but he wasn’t deathly cold anymore.

In the dull reflected glow of the fire, Eren could see that what he’d first taken for black eyes were actually a very pale color – in the reddish light he couldn’t see if the irises were grey or blue – but they were barely visible around the man’s blown pupils. His eyes were fixed on Eren’s face, but Eren didn’t think he was taking anything in.

Eren’s hand shifted to stroke the black strands back from Levi’s clammy forehead. Levi tilted his head to press his cheek into the warmth of Eren’s palm, and pressed his body forward, closing the small gap Eren had managed to put between them. Eren thought Levi should be more alert by this point, but he couldn't remember for sure. His own thoughts felt sluggish from lack of real sleep as he tried to recall exactly how long the various stages of hypothermia were supposed to last. All that came to mind was a hazy memory of someone in the class saying warming up took a lot longer than expected.

Which told him exactly nothing useful.

He could remember that he had to be careful not to let the guy re-freeze until his body was fully recovered, and he remembered the instructor telling them that hypothermic skin burned easily so it was important to introduce any hot liquids carefully, as injuries from relatively mild heat were just as likely as frostbite or dehydration.

_Dehydration_

Mentally kicking himself for having fallen asleep without getting any fluids into Levi, Eren pulled away, pushing away the blankets as he sat up.

He was completely unprepared for the hand that grabbed his upper arm and yanked him back down. Almost in the same motion, and far too smoothly for someone who’d essentially been at death’s door such a short time earlier - Levi slipped up and over, draping himself across Eren’s chest.

Eren lay flat on his back, blinking in surprise. After a moment, when it looked as though Levi had finished moving, Eren craned his neck to look down at the top of the head now using his shoulder as a pillow. Experimentally, he tried to slip out from under the other man. He was not surprised when Levi’s arms tightened around his rib cage.

Evidently Levi wanted him to stay put.

Effectively pinned by the heavy weight on his chest, Eren stared up at the ceiling and wondered what exactly the proper etiquette was in situations like this.

He _could_ just stay put. He did need to get the guy to drink something, but despite the heavily dilated pupils and the fact that the guy still didn’t seem entirely aware of his surroundings, the strength and speed of his movements gave Eren the definite impression that Levi was going to be just fine whatever he did and didn’t do.

It was just… that unexpected hard-on had never quite faded. After all the trouble his low sex-drive had given him as a teenager, it was beyond ironic that it seemed to have woken up now, when it was definitely out of place.

He didn’t have the right to let himself continue to get turned on by an unconscious man who was just trying to get warm.

Reaching down, he tried prying Levi’s arms off from around his torso. When that got him exactly nowhere, he wriggled his hands in between them and pushed against Levi, trying to pry him off without hurting him.

The guy was heavy, strong, and didn’t want to budge.

Panting, Eren lay flat on his back with his hands trapped between their chests, torn between amusement and frustration.

He’d just about decided he was going to have to stay where he was until the guy woke up completely, but he gave it one last shot. Instead of peeling the man off first, he decided to sit up with Levi still attached to his chest. Surprisingly, this time he actually managed to get upright. He’d yanked his hands free so he could reposition Levi’s legs with his knees resting on either side of Eren’s hips. The resulting position was in no way better. He was trying to work out how exactly to get to his feet when Levi stirred.

Pulling slightly away from Eren, Levi frowned as he glanced around the room. Eren found himself holding his breath as he tried to keep as still as possible, hoping he could ease away before the guy realized what was going on. When it didn’t look like Levi was planning on going anywhere on his own, Eren lightly placed his hands on either side of Levi’s hips and tried to lift the man, intending to slide out from underneath. At the first touch, Levi’s gaze swung back to fix on Eren’s face, blinking slowly, before sliding down to stare at Eren’s inconvenient erection.

Eren felt his face burn all the way to the tips of his ears. As Levi continued staring, with no expression on his face, Eren gritted his teeth and kept moving, trying to get away before he embarrassed himself any further.

When Levi lifted his weight up onto his knees, Eren let out a sigh of relief. He was expecting Levi to move away on his own, so he was taken completely by surprise when the man’s hands shifted to his shoulders and shoved, pushing him back down to the blanket with an ease that made a mockery of the struggle Eren had gone through to get up in the first place.

Anchoring Eren to the floor, Levi crouched on all fours over the taller man. His gaze was still blurry, his eyes dilated and unfocused. Eren figured the guy was acting on instinct. He just wasn’t entirely sure what instinct that was.

As levi leaned in and closed the gap between their faces, Eren watched him with wide eyes, absolutely still except for the rise and fall of his chest as he tried to control his breathing. He had no idea what he was expecting – if he was expecting anything, but when Levi ran his tongue lightly across Eren’s lips his entire body jolted in surprise, only to stiffen a moment later when he felt Levi’s teeth bite his bottom lip.

Lifting his head, Levi’s eyelids dropped down to half cover his eyes as he watched Eren’s reaction. He licked his lips, and Eren felt his breathing hitch.

His thoughts were incoherent. One tiny corner was screaming at him to do something, though it wasn’t specific about what. The rest was a tangled mess, all of his attention fixed on the mouth of the man above him.

Levi leaned back down to the sensitive join between Eren’s neck and shoulder. This time Eren was pretty sure he knew what was about to happen, but when he felt the teeth bite down - a little harder than he’d expected – the current that raced through his whole body was so strong his back arched up off of the blanket.

The first he knew of the hand slipping down his stomach was when he felt cold fingers wrap around his erection. He shuddered, and might have come back to his senses if he wasn’t distracted by Levi's mouth as it trailed down his chest.

Levi’s thumb and middle finger met around the base of Eren's shaft, and as every muscle in Eren's body seemed to tighten, he felt the hand slowly pulling up. A broad finger slipped across the tip, and with a moan Eren grabbed Levi’s wrist and tried to push it away. He might as well have not bothered for all the effect he had on the man. Levi’s hand continued its excruciatingly slow movement, even as his teeth closed over Eren’s nipple and bit down, stopping just short of painful.

Overwhelmed by the sensations, Eren heart was beating so hard he felt as though it echoed through his ribcage. He was only dimly aware that his gasps for breath had turned into high pitched whimpers that would have embarrassed the shit out of him if he’d been any less turned on.

Levi shifted back to sit on Eren’s thighs. His heavy lidded eyes watched Eren, one hand moving relentlessly on Eren's dick as his other skated over Eren’s trembling stomach muscles, and further, until he could trail one finger down along the delicate skin that led to his ass.

This time, when Eren’s back arched up, he actually lifted the other man with him. Levi let out a hum of pleasure. Eren looked down the line of his body and he felt his breath stop as he watched the other man press his own erection to Eren’s and wrap his hand around both.

As the hand resumed stroking, Eren’s hands clenched in the blanket at his sides.

His eyes flicked up to Levi’s face. The thin, slashing black brows were drawn together, the pale eyes nearly shut. Only a glittering sliver showed beneath Levi’s dark eyelashes. His mouth was very slightly open. He made no sound, but Eren could see his chest heave slightly as he gasped for breath.

It was the most erotic thing Eren had ever seen, and it sent him right over the edge. His vision blurred and his hips pressed up against the other man as his body bucked through the strongest orgasm he’d ever had.

When he came back to himself, Levi was half lying on top of him. His head was back on Eren’s shoulder, his arm and leg wrapped across Eren to hold him in place. Eren could feel the man's erection pressing against his hip but Levi didn’t seem to be planning to do anything with it.

Every part of Eren right down to his teeth still tingled, and he knew his face must be bright red. Eren flopped an arm over his face and tried to collect himself. As his breathing very slowly returned to normal, he felt incredibly tired. He knew he needed to get up and clean himself off, work out how to deal with the consequences of what had just happened, but sleep was inevitable.

He had the distinctly mortifying impression that Levi had just brought him off just so he would stop moving around. Oddly like shaking out a flat pillow to fluff it up.

Eren's last thought as he slipped under was that somehow that didn't bother him as much as it should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should have called the Blizzard chapters 'Eren tries to get some sleep but things keep getting in the way', but too late now.
> 
> Also smut is really really hard to write, I knew it would be, but I really had no idea.


	5. Snowday Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Eren start getting to know each other in the non-biblical sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everyone who's sent me a message or left a comment, thank you! 
> 
> It makes every sleepy day at work worth it :)

 

Eren woke to bright sunlight, and a crystal clear recollection of everything that had happened the night before. He stared up at the dust motes floating in the early morning rays of light high above his head. For a moment, in the still silence broken only by the distant ticking of the clock, he started to wonder if it had all been a dream.

He had a fraction of a second to wonder why the idea made him feel so disappointed, when all thinking stopped entirely as he realized that the weight he’d been feeling on his arm was someone using it as a pillow.

Levi’s eyes were clear and alert as they met Eren’s.

Eren felt his face burn. “Good morning.”  The man’s eyes were a sharp, pale blue. They were also far too close. He eased his arm out from under the other man’s head. He half expected a hand to reach up and stop him, but awake and aware Levi seemed to be ok with Eren moving away.

Sitting up, Eren started to tug at the blanket to cover himself, but realized that it had bunched up and twisted and he was about to leave Levi completely exposed. He decided he could deal with just the corner covering his lap.

Levi shifted an arm to prop up his head. Laying on his side as he looked up at Eren, he seemed completely at ease, as if he often found himself stretched out naked on floors next to complete strangers.  Faced with Levi’s calm stillness, Eren felt as if his own limbs were suddenly twice as awkward and in the way as usual.

He clenched his hands in the blanket over his knees. “I’m Eren.”

“Yes, I remember.” Levi’s voice was deep, and the texture caught Eren so off guard that he nearly missed the implication.

Nearly. His eyes went wide. “How much do you remember?”

Levi’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. “Pretty much everything, I think.” His eyes flicked over what he could see of Eren. “I can account for most of the marks I see on you, in any case.”

Eren looked down. He could see a couple of reddened patches where Levi’s teeth had bitten  – or sucked – a little harder, but it was the dry flaky trail on his belly that made him jerk his legs up to his chest. His face went so hot he knew his already flushed skin must be approaching fire engine red. He stared at Levi’s almost bored expression. There was no hint of anything even resembling a smile, but he could _swear_ the man was amused at his reaction.

Eren opened his mouth to say something – anything – but nothing came out. His eyes shifted away from Levi’s, and snagged on the hand that was draped at Levi’s waist.

His mind flashed back to the feel of that same hand on his skin the night before, and he felt his heart skip into double time.

“Thank you.”

For a moment Eren thought the other man was referring to the whole… hand incident.

“You saved my life.” Whatever amusement Eren had seen had vanished. Levi’s eyes were intent on Eren’s face, as if he wanted to make sure Eren understood the truth of what he was saying. “I'd be dead now if you hadn’t helped me.”

“That’s ok. Anyone would have-“ Eren twisted his fingers together. “I mean, the fact that you got yourself to my front door in the state you were in is… _really_ impressive.” He blinked, and frowned at the other man. “How did you wind up out in this weather? We’re miles from anything – how did you get here?”

Levi paused and looked over at the windows. “By the time my truck slid off the road I think I was already way off the highway. After that, once I walked into the water everything I remember gets blurry, until I started warming up.” His eyes turned back to meet Eren’s. “So thank you. And I’m sorry. I’m sure you weren’t expecting me to attack you when you were just trying to get me warm.”

“You didn’t attack me-“

“Bullshit. I held you down and grabbed your dick.”

Eren bit his lip. “I know enough self-defense that I could have stopped you.”

Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Really, I just –” Eren stopped and shook his head. “No, actually. I get it, if it had been my sister, or my brother – or whoever really, I could see myself being angry. But-“ He forced himself to meet Levi’s gaze directly. “I knew you weren’t really in control of yourself, and I didn’t stop you." He tried to tell himself to stop talking even as he heard the words keep pouring out of his mouth. "And I wanted you to keep going. So I’m at fault too.” His face had gone back to bright red again, he could feel it. “I’d be really mad if it was my sister in your shoes.” His eyes flicked down to Levi’s bare feet. “Or position. Or whatever.”  He pressed his lips together to finally shut himself up.

Levi blinked.

Eren was never so grateful for the interruption of an unearthly, yet familiar, yowl. Moe was perched on the arm of the couch, glaring down at them.

Slowly looking away, Levi glanced back over his shoulder.  “That is one ugly-ass cat”

“Yeah. He wants to be fed.” Eren looked around frantically, before leaning over to grab at the fabric that had been wrapped around Levi’s head the night before. He struggled to his feet, wrapping the towel around his waist. He’d been going for the sheet, but he wasn’t going back for it now.

His knees were stiff, and for a moment he was distracted as he noticed the darkening bruises from landing on them the night before. There was also a triangular shaped one on one hip that he thought might have come from running into the counter at some point, though he couldn't remember when.

Levi stretched, and sat up. “I don’t suppose my clothes from yesterday are wearable?”

Eren looked over the back of the couch to the front door. His eyes widened as he saw the extent of the mess he’d left. The entranceway looked something like a battlefield, with each scattered remnant of Levi’s clothing lying in its own puddle of water.

His eyes shot to the bright sunlight streaming through the wall of windows.

“Oh, shit.” Eren half ran to the front door. He sighed in relief when he pulled it open and found a good foot and a half of snow, even under the protection of the porch roof. If the snow was that high here, it would most likely be a lot worse on the road. There was no way anyone would try and make the trip right away. Shivering, he shut the door, and looked at the clock. He had at least a few hours before even the best snowplow would have a chance at making the road passable.

He was going to have to put everything back to normal before the others came home. Keeping the house in order had become Armin’s responsibility, mostly by default, from the day he had moved in with the rest of the family. He was the only one of the four who paid any attention when the place dissolved into chaos, and he had very early on worked out that he needed to be brutal if he wanted the others to clean up after themselves.

Eren had learned his lesson after he found the goat chewing on the contents of his bag – including his homework - the last of the many times he’d forgotten and dumped his stuff on the floor by the front door. He'd been mostly good since then, and the few isolated times he'd left messes for Armin to clean up since then had been just as memorable.

So he was really glad Armin wasn’t around to see this.

Turning back to Levi, he noted the man had stood up. He was focused on wrapping the sheet Eren hadn’t managed to grab around himself, and Eren took the opportunity to study him. The bruises on his chest had deepened, and stood out against his white skin. Eren didn’t realize his eyes had dropped down below Levi’s waist until the sheet shifted and obscured his view.

His eyes shot up to the other man’s face, catching a glimpse of Levi’s raised eyebrow before he lost the ability to look in his direction at all.

Concentrating intently on the nearest pile of waterlogged fabric, he scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I’m just gonna go… get some clothes.” He was already halfway to the staircase by the time he finished the sentence.

“Alright” The voice was calm.

“I’ll uh, be right back.”

“Fine.”

Eren escaped up to his room as fast as he could without being too obvious about running away.

As he shut the door behind him, he thumped his head back against it, trying to wipe the last few minutes from his memory.

He forced himself to breathe deeply for a couple of seconds, before jolting into action. He grabbed clean clothes for himself and happily got dressed, after cleaning his stomach as best he could with ice cold tap water. He felt much better not naked.

Clothes for Levi were more of a problem. Levi was muscular, but lean and almost petite. Eren’s clothes would likely hang off him. Armin was slightly skinnier, but even taller than Eren.  Plus, with what Eren had done under Armin’s blanket downstairs, he figured he’d better leave the rest of Armin’s things alone.

Mikasa’s clothes would probably fit the best, but Eren didn’t think either Levi or Mikasa would appreciate that. He didn’t even consider attempting to find anything in Hanji’s room.

Deciding his own wardrobe was the safest, he grabbed a pair of boxers, a tee and his warmest sweater, along with a pair of sweatpants with a drawstring waist and a couple towels from his bathroom.

He checked his phone, but as expected there was no signal. There was a two-way radio in the basement, but unless there was an actual emergency he didn’t think there was any need to worry about checking in with anybody in town. Major embarrassment did not count as an emergency, not to mention the fact that the bed and breakfast everyone would be staying at was owned by Jean's mother, and there was little to no chance that the idiot would be anywhere else with Mikasa around.

He paused at his door, took a deep breath, and headed back downstairs with the clothes clutched to his chest.

Levi was standing at the window by the front door. The demon cat was rubbing his head against Levi’s bare calf, but stopped to glare at Eren before stalking off towards the kitchen.

It looked like Levi had cleaned up somewhat, the clothes were in one wet heap by the fire, next to the now neatly folded and stacked blankets.

He made no comment when Eren slipped in one of the puddles of water he'd already forgotten about, only just managing to stop himself from falling, but Eren was pretty sure he saw the corner of his mouth twitch again.

“Where can I shower?”

Eren shook his head as he set the clothes and towels on the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room area. “The power is out so there isn’t any hot water.”

Levi raised his brow, and tapped his foot on the floor. “Isn’t this a heated floor?”

“Yeah, one of the generators keep the building's heat going. Just no hot water, or lights. Pretty much everything else is covered.” He personally thought Hanji liked the idea of ‘roughing it in the wilderness’, but she couldn’t live without her computers and test equipment. And Mikasa refused to be cold, so lighting and water was pretty much all that was left.

“The microwave and stove work though, so we can heat water that way.” As he moved to the stove to put the kettle on to boil, he was overly aware of Levi stepping into the kitchen behind him.

The whole sponge bath thing was usually horrible. The water would either be scalding or cold, it never seemed to manage an in between, and no matter how thorough someone tried to be, there was no way to feel completely clean when you were used to a shower. But Eren hadn’t really thought through what it would be like to do a sponge bath next to Levi. He should have given the man a kettle and a towel and pointed to a bathroom. He’d never had a problem keeping his attention off of Armin when they’d been in the same situation, but from the moment Levi dropped the sheet, Eren kept having to jerk his eyes away.

Levi was methodical and thorough as he scrubbed at his skin. He was still going after Eren had finished and put his own clothes back on – he'd only stripped down to his boxers. He’d also fed the cat, who’d inhaled the food and then disappeared.

He didn’t even realize he’d forgotten to not watch Levi until the shorter man dropped the sponge back in the dish he’d been using and turned his head to stare back at him.

Eren quickly shifted his gaze to the table. “I think we have some stuff to put on those bruises.” His eyes flicked back to Levi’s chest and away. A corner of his mind registered that something about the bruising was odd, but he couldn’t think what.  

“I’m fine, don’t bother.” Levi snagged the t-shirt, pulling it over his head. The hem came to about mid-thigh, and Eren quickly busied himself so he wouldn’t stare or do anything else stupid. The guy was almost delicate, despite his clearly defined muscles, but Eren was pretty sure telling him he looked cute in the oversize clothing would be a bad thing. 

Levi had finished dressing by the time Eren had cleaned up the kitchen and pulled out the mop to start on the living room floor. He’d protested at first when Levi started to help clean, but the man hadn’t even bothered arguing, he’d just grabbed the mop from Eren’s hands and started re-cleaning the floor, telling Eren to go handle the laundry.

By the time they finished, Levi had gotten Eren to sanitize every part of the kitchen they’d touched, and the living room area practically gleamed. Eren was pretty sure Armin was going to like Levi.

He glanced at the clock again. It was close to ten AM, and he should have long since started the morning round of chores.

“I have to go out to the barn for a while, do you want me to set up a movie for you or something?” Eren offered, and then bit his lip at Levi's impassive expression.

“I'll come with you.”

“But I don’t know how long you have to be careful not to freeze again.”

“The barn is heated too, I'm guessing?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll be fine.”

 In the end, as they stood in front of the door with Levi bundled in Mikasa’s puffy old coat and his own boots, Eren had to admit the man looked like he was ready for the weather. He studied him, looking for any sign that the guy had nearly frozen to death the night before.

There wasn't one. Except... Eren reached out a hand and touched a finger to Levi's lower lip.

As he registered Levi’s raised brow, he jerked his hand back and fisted it at his side. “Ah, sorry.” He wanted to disappear into the floor. “I, ah, just your lips are cracked. Sorry.”

Levi’s expression was impossible to read, so Eren had no warning at all when the shorter man reached out and twisted his hand in the neck of Eren's shirt, yanking his face down close enough that he could place his dry lips over Eren’s.

The kiss started out fairly chaste, but when Eren gasped for breath, Levi pushed his tongue into Eren’s mouth. Even as Eren felt himself responding, Levi pulled away.

He tapped a finger on Eren’s cheek. “We’ll deal with the rest of that later.”

As he headed out the door, Eren stared after him, wide-eyed.

_I’m in so much fucking trouble._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is past 5 AM as I post this, so I apologize for any mistakes. As always, my Tumblr is afternoonteawithme, I'd love to hear what you think.


	6. Snowday Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Close proximity is not helping Eren get over his nervousness around Levi. But the goat might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had very little time to work on this chapter this week, because of work and some procrastination. Therefore it's the longest chapter yet. (I may edit this more later if I get a chance)
> 
> Also, I'm sorry, the goat incident was one of the very first ideas I had for this story, and I tried really hard to talk myself out of it. Really.

The original barn - like every other part of the ranch that lay above ground - had gone down the fire that had destroyed the farm shortly after Eren's mother's death, over a decade earlier.

Right up until his first meeting with Hanji, after finding out she'd stepped in to take on the role of his guardian, Eren had been certain there was no way he'd be able to stay at Shinganshina. But Hanji hadn't even seemed to consider removing Eren as an option. To the lost, confused, and grieving twelve year old, she'd seemed to be some all-powerful force of nature, swooping in, driving away the crowds of curious and morbid, turning what was left of his life upside down and then setting him back down on solid ground. She'd had a new house and barn going up almost before Eren had realized what was happening.

She'd created a safe home for him, and later for his adoptive siblings. He didn't think he'd ever entirely understand Hanji, but he'd always be beyond grateful to her. 

Despite the harsh seasons in this part of the state, the barn's bright red exterior still looked shiny and new. The inside, on the other hand, showed clear signs of hard use, at least at any height an animal could reasonably be expected to reach. The inner walls of the split-level barn were covered in dents and patched-over holes, and some of the original stall posts and most of the doors had been replaced. The whole place looked like a wooden patchwork. At one point one of the main structural columns had been kicked so hard it cracked and nearly split in two, so they’d coated all the bases in concrete, and wrapped them in thick blankets of black rubber insulation held in place by criss-crossing yellow and orange straps. The columns now looked like large hazard warning signs, which was very appropriate.

As the two men worked their way down the stalls that lined the walls of the large main room, Eren found his eyes constantly wandering in Levi’s direction. The smaller man was fast and methodical. His economical, almost gracefully smooth motions made Eren wonder if he was a trained dancer, or maybe a fighter.

Whatever it was, he moved beautifully, and Eren was having a hard time remembering to be careful of the usual dangers that came with working on Hanji’s ranch.

The only noise in the room came from the two men’s pitchforks and brooms, and the quiet shuffling and huffs of air coming from the occupants of the stalls.

The place had a deceptively peaceful air.

Hanji had a weakness for the unusual, specifically the type of unusual that most people felt more comfortable keeping a safe distance away. Armin spent a great deal of his time tracking down new homes for abandoned creatures that Hanji insisted ‘just needed to be understood properly’, but many ended up staying at Shinganshina. The farm was home to more than the usual proportion of highly intelligent animals that would happily stomp on, kick, shove, or bite the humans that fed them, all the while working out new and unusual ways to escape.

Eren had learned, from painful experience, exactly what parts of which animals to stay away from, and which stalls to be careful of. But he was both fascinated by and nervously uncomfortable around Levi, and the combination was making it very hard for him to concentrate.

He couldn’t help stealing glances at the smaller man as they worked, but he also found he couldn’t bring himself to break the man’s reserve and ask him the questions that were starting to burn in his mind.

This was obviously not Levi’s first time dealing with livestock – the two men had finished taking care of the small herd of cows that were being kept in from the worst of the storm on the bottom floor of the barn in record time, largely due to Levi. Every time Eren had finished filling a trough or shoveling out a section he’d turn around and find Levi had done twice as much in the same amount of time.

He hadn’t even seemed to need Eren’s warning about the more troublesome cattle. He’d neatly side-stepped Tulip’s hoofs when cow had gone for his feet, before Eren had even noticed her heading his way, and when Sunny - who had his own personal fenced off area because he enjoyed shoving both humans and the other cattle around a little too much - had tried to squash him into a wall, he’d easily avoided it and Eren didn’t know whether it was the look on his face or the tap he gave Sunny’s nose, but the bull had behaved perfectly after that. He kept trying to follow Levi around and mooed unhappily when the men had left.

As they trudged back through the snow after lunch, Eren had finally brought himself to ask about it. Levi had shrugged. “I helped out on a farm for a couple years.”

“Only that? You really seem to know what you’re doing.” The guy was far more at ease around the large animals than Eren, and Eren had been working on the ranch as long as he could remember. But Levi had just nodded, and seemed far more interested in looking over the surrounding forest than the conversation, so Eren had dropped it.

The sense of awe he’d felt for the man, born from the simple fact that Levi had had the strength to live long enough to get to Eren’s door, kept growing. Levi was proving to be strong, competent, and in full control of himself, everything that Eren admired. Add to that physical attraction and a few choice memories that kept popping into his mind at inappropriate times and Eren was finding it harder and harder to actually look the man in the face, and nearly impossible to break the silence between them.

But then Eren forgot to warn Levi about Santa, the devil goat.

Every occupied stall had an information placard attached to the door, that listed all the special instructions and warnings, and Santa’s had ‘BITES A LOT’ in big bold letters, right underneath an even larger ‘WILL TRY TO ESCAPE’. But Santa wasn’t in his own stall. He was in with his longtime companion, a large and very nervous piebald gelding named Jumper who didn’t like storms, but stayed calm around Santa.

Santa had obviously been waiting. The moment Levi pulled open Jumper’s door the goat barreled past and away to the far end of the barn, his hooves glancing over the toes of Levi's borrowed boots as he clopped by.

The instant Eren saw the scruffy white hair out of the corner of his eye he was already pulling himself up onto one of the cross beams between two of the stalls. Santa had given him more scars than any of the other residents of the ranch combined.

“Get up high.” He called out. “There’s no way to catch him until he gets tired of running around.”

Levi shot Eren an irritated glance. “I’m not waiting for the damn goat to get bored before I wash off this shit.”

As Santa came speeding back in his direction, he shifted to the balls of his feet and got ready to pounce.

“Watch out, he bites.” Eren winced as Santa veered off at the last moment and Levi had to jump out of the way of the snapping teeth. “He doesn’t act like normal goats.”

“Yeah.”

Santa was fast, but Levi was faster, and as Santa came swooping by again he might have managed to catch him if it weren’t for the drawstring on his pants coming loose.

“Shit. Fuck. You stupid son of a bitch-“ Santa had used the momentary distraction to nip at his hip before dancing back out of reach.

Levi and Santa circled each other, each looking for an opening.

As Eren stared at the man and goat, he felt a very inappropriate grin spread across his face. The goat was prancing happily, and Levi was swearing nonstop, all the while holding the sweatpants up with a fist clenched at the loose waistband.

“Just get up high and wait him out.”

“Fuck that.” He feinted, and had his arms around Santa’s middle a moment later. He half lifted the goat and actually had him back in the stall, but as he backed out Santa managed to catch at the trailing string of the pants, and pulled.

Levi didn’t fall, but he lost the sweatpants, and Eren felt the laughter come bubbling up even as Levi pulled himself up onto the wall between the stalls, and then jumped over to straddle one of the support beams in the center of the room. His mouth was moving, but Eren was whooping so hard he couldn’t hear the words. He was pretty sure the man was still swearing though.

Santa was running a victory lap around the stalls, the pants gripped in his mouth and trailing behind him as he showed off to all the horses that were tall enough to poke their heads over the doors.

Eren completely lost it. He laughed so hard tears welled up, blurring his vision, and he lost his grip on the beam beside him. As he fell backwards, he had a moment to be thankful the stall he was heading into was the elderly Lady Bee’s as he landed on a soft clean pile of hay.

He barely heard the sounds from outside the stall after that, but a few minutes later Levi evidently won the battle as the stall door opened and Levi appeared in the doorway, staring down at him expressionlessly.

The laughter stilled in Eren’s throat at the look on Levi’s face, but as he glanced down and realized the man was still not wearing any pants, he felt it bubbling up again.

Even Lady Bee huffed and shook her head as he clapped a hand over his mouth.

He thought he might have seen a corner of the man’s mouth twitch. “When you’re done being a dickwad, get back to work. I’m tired of smelling like this place.”

All Eren could do was nod.

 

___

 

They were done and putting their coats back on before Eren remembered.

“Oh yeah, the barn shower should work.”

Levi’s head shot up and he stared hard into Eren’s eyes. “You mean there’s a working shower out here?”

“It should work. The barn’s hot water is still run by the generator.”

Levi stared at him for a moment, before evidently deciding not to ask why. “Show me.”

He should have thought of this before. At lunch Levi had insisted they both wash themselves as much as possible, and re-sterilize the kitchen, before they ate. As Eren led the way to the door at the back of the barn, he let himself hope. He never used this shower, which was why he hadn’t thought about it. But maybe this time would be different.

As he neared the dark grey tiled hallway that led to the shower area, he felt his heart start thumping in his chest and knew he wasn’t going to be able to do it.

He stood aside and let Levi walk past him. Levi took a few steps and then turned to look back at Eren.

“You go ahead, I’ll go back and get you some other clothes.”

“You stink of animal shit. I don’t want you touching what I’m going to have to wear.”

Biting at his lip, Eren looked away from Levi’s face.  He’d felt so much more at ease in front of the other man since the goat incident, but this was different. “I, ah. I have some trouble with places like that.”

“What, showers?”

“No!” Eren felt his face growing hot. He hated having to put the thing in words, but if he’d walked any further into the shower area he’d turn into a nervous wreck and he would hate Levi seeing that even more. “I have trouble with enclosed places.”

“You have claustrophobia?”

Eren loathed that word. “Something like that.”

Levi didn’t say anything, and after a moment Eren turned back to meet his eyes. He was watching Eren intently, and the younger man couldn’t read anything in his face this time.

“I’ll wash up in the house before I get your stuff. Ok?” He started edging away. “There should be clean towels in the cabinet in there.”

_Please drop it._

Levi seemed to understand the unspoken thought “Alright.” He turned and walked away, and Eren breathed a sigh of relief.

He'd nearly made it out the main door when he had his second flash of inspiration.

A few minutes later he pushed open the trapdoor and stepped into the large room that took up half of the barn’s top floor. Armin kept this area as clean and well organized as the main house, and it took no time at all for Eren to find the boxes marked as Armin’s old clothes.

Digging through the piles, he pulled out anything he thought might fit Levi’s bulkier frame. He had a box nearly full when he heard the sound of something shifting deep in the room.

Standing up straight, he looked over. He supposed there could be rats, the cats kept the rodent population on the ranch under control, but they didn’t often come up this far. He was pretty sure Armin would have jumped on the slightest sign of anything like that up here though.

When he heard it again, he suddenly thought of the thuds the night before that had turned out to be Levi.

But Levi was downstairs, Eren could hear the sound of water flowing through the pipes from the hot water tank behind him.

The large room had narrow windows on each end, and bright lights hanging down all along the center line. The edges of the room, where the ceiling sloped down to meet the floor were in shadow, and as Eren squinted he thought he might have seen something move in one of the corners behind what he thought might be an old cupboard. He heard the sliding sound again.

“Hello?” There was no way it could be, but… “Levi?”

As if in answer, he heard the water stop.

He peered into the dim light, but when nothing moved, and everything was silent, he shrugged it off. He’d tell Armin about it when he got back.

He grabbed the box he’d set aside before heading back down the ladder.

As he stepped back through the doorway to the shower area, he found Levi already waiting at the edge of the tiled hallway.

He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and nothing else. Eren found his eyes tracking a drop of water that fell from the ends of the black hair and down Levi’s sculpted chest.

“Ah, here.” His tongue was thick in his mouth as he set the box down by Levi and kneeled beside it.

“You still reek.”

“Sorry, I remembered my brother.”  He glanced up and forced his eyes to look past Levi’s chest as he handed the man a pile of clothes.

Levi cocked an eyebrow. Eren tried to concentrate but his mind was not co-operating.

“I mean, I remembered my brother’s old clothes were in the attic. He was really short when he was sixteen or seventeen, so his clothes would probably fit you.” He felt the blood drain from his face as he heard his own words. “Not that you’re short. I just mean you’re smaller than average. Like he was. But he grew.”

Levi’s face was completely expressionless now.

Burying his face in his hands, Eren gave up and sat back against the wall. “I’m so sorry. Please ignore me.”

“You really have no filter, do you.”

Eren couldn’t look up. “I do. Usually only my family has to deal with me being this stupid.”

 “So I guess I should feel lucky?”

Eren heard a sigh, and then a moment later he felt his heart skip as a hand patted the top of his head. “Well that’s ok then. Just about everyone irritates the fuck out of me, but you don’t. So you must be special too.”

Eren heard Levi’s footsteps as he padded back towards the shower. He was glad the man had left, because otherwise he might have had to explain why those words had made it just about impossible for him to breath. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is now 5 in the morning once again. The comments and messages here and on my Tumblr help encourage me to stay up writing when I should be sleeping, so thank you all for that. (They make me really happy)


	7. The Silence After Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 is winding to a close, and Eren is starting to wonder where everyone will be sleeping that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a day off this week, so I managed to work on this a lot more than usual. This chapter is where the core of Levi and Eren's relationship starts to take shape, so I wanted to split it up as little as possible. Meaning this is super long, but I hope you all enjoy it!

Eren saw the blinking light on his phone as he elbowed open the door to his room. Carefully setting down the two tubs of hot water in his arms, he snatched it up and flicked through his texts. Two were from Mikasa, one from Armin, six from Hanji, and one from the dickhead.

The dickhead had sent a photo of himself posing next to Mikasa, with his arm along the back of the couch behind her, at his mom’s bed and breakfast. He’d obviously snuck the photo when Mikasa wasn’t looking - all he’d managed to get was the back of her head. Eren texted back a quick ‘Loser’ and deleted the message.

Armin asked him to get the pen set up for ‘something that can get through very tiny openings’ so he was already prepared when he opened Hanji’s messages and found a series of photographs of something that looked like a cross between a ferret and a squirrel, with a striped raccoon tail. By Hanji’s usual standards it was actually kind of cute, which meant chances were especially high that whatever anti-social habits it had were going to be a pain to deal with.

“I’ll seal up the pen. Does he bite?” He figured he could deal with most anything else, but he was really tired of getting nibbled by Hanji’s pets.

He started pulling out clean clothes with one hand as he opened the first of Mikasa’s messages, and grinned as he saw she’d sent a picture of Jean trying to smile into the camera as he held the raccoon-squirrel thing. It had its teeth buried in the fleshy part of his hand, and the wide-eyed panic breaking through the smirk on Jean’s face was a beautiful thing.

Eren decided the photo was worth a few more bite scars. He saved it as his wallpaper.

Mikasa’s second text was more to the point, if less entertaining.

“Trost got hit hard. Another 6-7 inches predicted starting this afternoon. We’ll stay here another night. If more than one box of pop-tarts is gone you will be eating only salad for the next month. Keep warm.”

Eren snorted. “Stop nagging. I’m not that bad.” He was pretty sure he’d only just started the second packet.  “Take your time, I’m good up here.” He added.

He hesitated before writing anything about Levi. Not that there was anything he needed to keep secret, but with Mikasa’s overprotective nature it would take very little to alarm her. In the end he decided to keep it light and simple. “We have a guest, some guy got stranded in the storm. He’s helping out.”

He held his breath as he pressed send.

Plugging the phone back into the one socket in his room that still had power, he made sure the settings were set to keep re-sending until there was enough signal for the messages to go out. He hoped it was before Mikasa got back, but if it wasn’t at least he’d have evidence that he’d tried to let her know.

He glanced out the windows. The light wasn’t entirely gone, but the clouds had moved in and it was starting to snow. The chores were done.  Once he went back downstairs all that was left to do was dinner, and then hanging out until bedtime.

But he’d already decided he wasn’t going to think about bedtime just yet.

Eren stripped and started scrubbing himself down. He had a feeling that if he missed a spot he’d be worrying about Levi noticing it the whole evening. It felt so strange to think that just the day before he’d been blithely showering with no idea that cleanliness was going to become so important to him within a very short space of time.

This time yesterday he hadn’t even known Levi existed. The man had become such a large presence in Eren’s mind that he could barely believe he’d first laid eyes on him maybe 16 hours earlier.

And now here he was, going over every inch of his body with the sponge until his skin started feeling raw, because a guy he’d just met seemed to like it when things were clean.

As soon as he’d finished laying out the fire for the night, Eren had walked into the kitchen, expecting to start the usual procedure of heating up a couple of the portioned meals that Armin had stuck in the freezer before he’d left. Armin was a decent cook, but Eren and Mikasa had been living off of the same three meals in rotation for the past four weeks. 

So when he’d realized that Levi was actually cooking, and whatever it was smelled really good, he’d felt kind of like a kid on Christmas morning. It had taken Levi shoving a huge plastic bucket of water into his stomach to bring him back down to earth. It hadn’t spilled, too much, but he’d had the breath knocked out of him.

“Don’t get any closer to the food. Your smell is ruining my appetite.” He’d handed Eren a second tub almost as big as the first and Eren had had to juggle not to drop them. “Go wash.”

Eren leaned over the tub and poured one of the buckets over his hair. As he massaged in shampoo he wondered why the bossiness that at times annoyed him so much in his sister actually made him really happy when it came from a short, black haired man whose face rarely seemed to do anything but frown, though Eren was certain he kept getting laughed at underneath it all.

The whole unreasoning attraction thing bothered him a little. He’d always been impulsive, though he’d spent years trying to train himself not to fly off the handle at any provocation, but this was like nothing he’d ever experienced. He’d dated Annie from the time they were 13 until their senior year, and at no point had he ever felt or acted this way, and he wasn’t sure if that meant he should apologize to her or that something was wrong with him now.

His eyes kept slipping to Levi, he kept thinking about him. Just about everything Levi did made his heart race, and he kept wanting to touch him. He could talk to the man now that he had the picture of Levi in a stand-off with a goat to call up when he felt himself getting too intimidated, but he still felt nervous and awkward. He really didn’t know much about Levi, and yet somehow he still felt like he _knew_ him.

When Levi told him he stank, Eren couldn’t help feeling like it was almost a way of showing affection.

He liked Levi.  Even now, as he tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in his gut, he couldn’t wait to get back downstairs to be near him.

When he was dressed, he took a deep breath and headed back down.

Eren stood just inside in the kitchen area and sniffed the air.

Levi glanced at him, then turned back to crack open the oven. Eren’s eyes widened as he realized Levi was wearing Armin’s brown vinyl butchers apron. It was slightly oversized even on Armin, and Levi was enveloped in the thing, the strings wrapped twice around his hips. Eren had never realized how appealing a functional apron could look.

“Wash your hands and set the table” Levi gestured with his chin to the formal eating area that took up the far right of the large living room.

“But I just did the whole bath thing upstairs. And we usually just eat in here-” Eren cut himself of at Levi’s stare.

“I caught the cat sitting on the countertop you have your hand on right now. Who knows what other shit you’ve touched. Wash.”

Scrubbing the soap between his hands under the freezing cold water, Eren looked over at the pot Levi was stirring. As he watched, the black haired man added sprinkles of stuff from the mysterious bottles on the spice rack that Eren had always figured was just for show.

If Levi wanted him to set up a table outside on the porch Eren wasn’t going to complain as long as he got to taste whatever it was that smelled so incredible.

When they finally sat down at the enormous wood beam dining table and Levi set a plate down in front of him, Eren had a moment of doubt, and wondered what Levi’s reaction would be if it ended up tasting badly and he wasn’t able to hide his disappointment.

So he was carefully schooling his expression as he put the first bite in his mouth, which was fortunate because as it was he had a hard time biting back a moan and his eyes closed involuntarily. He’d gladly wash his hands in between every bite if he got to eat food like this every day.

For a few minutes all he could do was shovel one bite after another into his mouth. He didn’t think it was just because he’d been eating the same thing for close to a month - this was one of the best tasting meals he’d ever eaten. He had no idea what the black bits all over the chicken were, or what was in the sauce Levi had poured over the fluffy white rice, but he knew he didn’t want to stop eating.

When he finally paused long enough to look up, he realized Levi was sitting back in his chair, quietly watching Eren. The younger man couldn’t read any expression on the pale face, disapproval or otherwise, but he felt himself flush and he deliberately slowed down to something approaching a normal pace.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Levi leaned forward and started eating from his own untouched plate. His movements were precise as he cut the chicken into tiny even pieces and neatly used the knife to shift a small portion of rice and chicken onto his fork. He didn’t even drop a grain as he lifted it to his lips. Eren watched, fascinated. Levi was easily the daintiest eater Eren had ever seen.

When the knife and fork stilled, Eren’s eyes flashed up to meet Levi’s and he realized he’d forgotten to be subtle. He’d been full on staring at the other man’s hands.

He hastily focused on his own plate and pretended he was concentrating on eating. “This is really good.”

“Thank you. It’s been a while since I cooked for anyone other than myself.”

Eren froze with his fork halfway up to his mouth. He was pretty sure that was the first piece of personal information Levi had volunteered.

He put the fork back down on his plate. “Where did you learn to cook like this?”

The corner of Levi’s mouth turned up. “My roommates in college were slobs. If I wanted to avoid getting food poisoning I had to be the cook.”

“Ok, but just cooking for your roommates doesn’t explain how you got so good.”

Levi cocked his head and raised a brow. “Why not? If I have to do it, I don't like half-assing shit."

Eren blinked. The conversation reminded him of their earlier one in the stable, when he'd wondered why Levi seemed so competent working with the ranch animals.

“Did you really only work on a farm for a couple of years?”

“Yes.”

Eren nodded slowly. He thought he might be starting to understand Levi, at least a little bit - but when he glanced up and saw Levi watching him curiously he shook his head at himself. He was weaving a whole character for the man from a few idle comments and less than a day of obsessive staring.

“Um, what do you do for a living?” He made himself start eating again. It wasn’t exactly a hardship.

Levi paused as he wiped his napkin across his mouth. “Recently unemployed.”

Eren didn’t see anything in Levi’s face that made him think the man was unhappy about that fact. “What did you do, before?”

Levi stilled, and Eren held his breath, wondering if he should retract the question. Maybe he’d misread Levi’s face and his new lack of job actually was a sore topic.

“Sales.”

Exhaling in relief at not having killed the conversation, Eren opened his mouth to ask further, when they both caught a glimpse of Moe jumping up onto the long kitchen counter.

The cat’s eyes met Levi’s, and he jumped back down to the floor.

Eren gaped. “That’s amazing. He’s never gotten off the counter by himself before.”

“He just needed to understand that that behavior was not tolerated.”

Eren swung his gaze back to Levi. The man was calmly finishing off his plate.

“What did you do?”

Levi raised a brow. “Just a little training.”

Slowly looking back at where the cat had been, Eren decided to stop trying to understand how Levi was able to do the things he did. His head was starting to spin.

“Do any of the other cats come into the house?”  

“There have been a few in the past, but Moe is the only one now.”

Levi raised a brow. “Moe. As in the three stooges.”

“No, as in my brother thought his eyes were really cute. So he was Moe.”

Levi leaned back to look at where the cat was grooming himself on the floor by the counter. Eren knew he was seeing a small body covered in uneven tufts of fur, patches that looked almost bare, and an oversized head with enormous eyes on a squashed oval of a face. His ears stuck out so far to the side that at first glance it looked like the distance between the tips was wider than the whole length of the cat. Whatever genetic combination had produced Moe was unprecedented, which was what had first caught Hanji’s eye.

“That’s cute?”

“My brother thinks so. My sister and I just keep our mouths shut.”

After that the conversation stayed fairly impersonal – on Levi’s side in any case. Eren found himself talking about Mikasa and Armin, and somehow the topic turned to Eren’s small rebellion that Levi had helped him tidy up that morning. Levi had actually seen every film in the _Giant Cannibal_ series, except for Eren’s personal favorite, _Giant Cannibals v.s The Saltwater Monster_.

“It sounds like shit in every possible way.”

“But that’s what makes it really _good_.”

The two were standing side by side at the sink as Levi cleaned the dishes and Eren dried and put them away.

“ _The Saltwater Monster_ movies aimed for arthouse and missed, badly, and the _Giant Cannibal_ series is pure exploitation. The two couldn’t mix. Every review I’ve ever seen says the film is painful to watch.”

“Yeah. But do you always let reviewers tell you what to think?”

Levi scowled, and Eren grinned.

“Fine. I’ll watch it.”

“You won’t regret it.”

“Bullshit.”

Despite Levi’s lackluster reaction, Eren was almost giddy as he set up the VCR and carefully unwrapped his precious video, Armin had copied it onto DVD, but Eren felt a first viewing should always be from the video.

They settled onto opposite corners of the couch, and as the film started Eren leaned his back against the sofa’s arm with his knees pulled up to his chest so he could surreptitiously watch Levi’s reactions. Which were completely unreadable, of course, and very soon his lack of sleep over the past two days caught up with him.

He must have fallen asleep, because he opened his eyes to find himself slouched against the back of the couch.

He lifted his head and found Levi watching him.

“What?” He squirmed but decided he was too comfortable to move.

“You force me to watch this fucking travesty and then you fall asleep.”

“Sorry.” Eren sat up straight. “And it’s not a travesty.”

He turned back to the screen just as a fountain of blue blood spurted out of the mouth of one of the giant cannibals as it bit into a bright green tentacle. “See? They actually hired a painted to design the splatter pattern on those walls with the red cannibal blood and that blue stuff. I've never seen a film do gore so creatively.”

Levi just snorted, and the two carried on watching.

When Eren felt himself nodding off again, he sat up straight with his feet flat on the ground. His eyelids kept drooping, and he slipped into a barely conscious daze where all he was aware of was that he needed to stay awake.

“That’s enough, idiot.” Levi leaned over and yanked on Eren’s arm, pulling him into his side as he leaned back into the corner of the couch.

“Sleep. I’ll watch the damn film on my own.“  

But Eren was suddenly very much wide awake. His back was to Levi’s chest, and he could feel the slow thud of the man’s heart through the thin barrier of their clothes. One arm was wrapped around his side and rested at his waist. His sweater had hiked up a little, and Eren could feel Levi’s cold fingertips brushing against the tiny sliver of bare skin just above his jeans.

His eyes were wide on the screen, but he still wasn’t taking any of it in.

One of the icy fingers moved a fraction of an inch. Eren felt a shiver run up his spine, and he knew Levi felt it because a second later the whole hand moved again, deliberately stroking over his bare skin.

Eren pulled away enough that he could turn to look at the man beside him. Levi met his stare as his hand fell away.

His eyelids had come down to half shield his eyes, and Eren felt his breathing hitch at the intensity in the man’s expression.

Without any thought, he leaned in and kissed Levi.

It was a gentle, easy kiss. For the first time, he realized that the sharp slash of Levi’s mouth was unexpectedly soft. Apart from lifting his hands to rest lightly at Eren’s waist, Levi held himself completely still. The small portion of Eren’s mind that wasn’t completely covered in a blurry haze realized that Levi was letting him keep control over whatever it was that was going on.

He slid one hand up to flatten his palm on Levi’s chest. Bracing his free arm on the couch, he leaned his weight forward and pressed his mouth against the other man’s. He pulled at Levi’s lower lip, sucking lightly. When the man licked along the line of Eren’s mouth, he felt a jolt run through his body.

He opened his mouth and slid his tongue between Levi’s lips. He was still controlling the kiss, but the man was matching him move for move.

As he slanted his mouth against Levi’s so he could deepen the kiss, Eren felt the heartbeat beneath his palm speed up. The hands above his hips shifted to slip beneath his sweater. He shivered as he felt cold fingers glide across his lower back.

It was at about that point that Eren realized the fact that he’d forgotten to breath was becoming an issue, and had to break away to gasp for air. Panting, he looked into the other man’s face, and was incredibly satisfied to see Levi’s lips were parted and he was breathing heavily.

Their faces were inches apart, and Eren’s eyes were fixed on Levi’s as a hand slid down along the length of his spine to stroke the delicate skin beneath the waist of his jeans.  It was the combination of Levi’s fingers on his ass and the absorbed look on Levi’s face as he watched the effect of his touch that sent a wave of arousal through Eren. His body jerked, and he heard a low, drawn out moan that he barely recognized as coming from his own mouth.

It was like the sound flipped a switch in Levi. Eren saw the exact moment the the restraint he'd been using to allow the younger man to set the pace evaporated.

The arm at his back suddenly flexed, pulling Eren’s body in, so his entire weight rested against the shorter man. Levi’s mouth captured Eren’s in a fierce kiss that bore little resemblance to the ones they’d just exchanged, and his other hand shifted to pull at Eren’s hips, tugging him in as close as their position allowed.

Eren couldn’t shut his eyes.  He could see Levi’s pupils were dilated again, almost like the night before. He tried to lift his arms to wrap around Levi’s neck.

And that was the beginning of the end.

When he tried to raise the hand he had been leaning on, he found it trapped by the arm Levi had wrapped tightly around him.

His body went rigid. It only took a split second for Eren to realize he wasn’t trapped and calm his instinctive panic.

But it was enough. Levi instantly lifted his mouth, and pulled his arms from around Eren to push at Eren’s shoulders, putting a foot or so between them.

Eren whimpered as the cold air replaced the heat of Levi’s chest.  

“Time to stop.”

_Don’t stop._

Eren blinked and licked at his lips. Levi’s eyes flicked down and back up to meet his. Eren’s sanity seeped back in.

He pulled away, so Levi’s hands dropped to his lap. “Ok. Yeah.” He tried to control his breathing. “It’s late. Bedtime. We need to go to bed.” His eyes widened.”Our own beds. I mean. Mine, for me, your guest one-“

Levi cut him off by leaning in for a brief, hard kiss.

“Shut up, kid.”

He pulled away, and Eren had to restrain himself from reaching out and pulling at his arm as he stood up from the couch.

As Eren led the way upstairs, he desperately hoped Levi didn’t see the way his legs weren’t quite steady yet.

“This is it.” He opened the door to the guest bedroom, on the opposite corner of the house from his own.

He watched Levi step into the room and look around.

He looked back at Eren. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” He didn’t move. “I guess I’ll go then.”

“Ok” The guy was always so damn calm.

“Goodnight.”

The corner of Levi’s lip turned up. “Are you going to just stand there all night?”

Eren flushed, and stepped back, pulling the door shut behind him, only just managing to keep himself from adding another ‘goodnight’.

At the door to his own room, he found his feet frozen to the ground, his hand unmoving on the handle.

There were so many reasons he needed to just open his door and go to sleep, alone, in his own bed. The main one being that he’d only just met the man that morning.

They’d never even discussed if Levi was already in a relationship.

When that thought actually made his chest physically ache, Eren leaned forward and let his forehead thud against the wood of his door. He could almost hear Mikasa’s voice in his head telling him to think, wait, be sensible. This… _whatever_ he was feeling was not something he should act on just yet. Maybe once the storm was over, and Levi went on his way, the two of them could meet up and get to know each other, do the whole dating thing, take their time before sleeping together.

But what if after tomorrow Eren never saw him again, or they tried to date and Levi dumped him when he realized Eren was too much of a coward to even get in a car, or how annoying it was that they could only go to a few certain places because otherwise Eren was likely to have a panic attack in the middle of a crowded room.

It wasn’t like those things couldn’t happen even if he did sleep with Levi tonight. But the idea of never knowing what it felt like to finish what they’d started downstairs was making it hard for Eren to think straight.

So what if there was no guarantee of a future. The whole past day might not have happened. Levi could have frozen to death when he stumbled into the water.  And when he was found Eren would have thought ‘how terrible’, and then carried on with his life. Never having known Levi at all.

He didn’t even remember the walk back to the guest room until his hand hovered over the paneling. He knocked.

Levi pulled it open.  He was still fully dressed, and Eren couldn’t help but think that maybe he’d been waiting.

Eren hesitated. How did you go about asking someone to have sex with you?

“Would you have sex with me?”

 _Smooth, Eren._ He flushed bright red.

Levi blinked slowly. “You really are incredible.”

“Thanks.” It seemed like an appropriate response.

Levi stepped forward, pulling the door shut behind him so he crowded into Eren’s space. “Ok.”

“You will?”

“Yes, brat. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on you all day.”

Eren swallowed, and Levi took his wrist and started back down the length of the landing. He must have seen Eren go into his room at some point because he led the way straight to Eren’s door.

He paused, and looked up at Eren. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

In answer, Eren opened the door and stepped inside, pulling Levi in after him.

 


	8. The Silence After Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren decides he's had enough of hesitating, and dives into a relationship - and into bed - with Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And up goes the rating again... 
> 
> This chapter is basically smut, all the way through. 
> 
>  
> 
> A great big hug to everyone for the comments and messages here and on tumblr. Without you guys I would never be able to keep pushing through the whole self-criticism barrier, so I really wanted to say thank you!

 

As the soft thud of Levi pulling the door shut reverberated through the room, Eren wondered why the bed suddenly seemed to be taking up so much more space than usual.

Letting out a slightly shaky breath, he turned to look back at the man leaning against the door. 

They stared at each other, silently, a little more than arms distance apart. In that quiet moment, Eren felt an odd sort of peace settle over him.

It was a very familiar feeling, though it had been a while since he’d let himself feel this way. The _right now_ had become all that mattered, and there was no room in his head for thoughts of consequences. He hadn’t forgotten they existed, they just really didn’t matter.

He’d felt this way all the time as a kid when he’d happily barrel into any fight he could get, back before he’d learned he really shouldn’t ignore things like broken bones, expulsion, and Mikasa getting into trouble right along with him.

As he walked over to sit on the bed, he realized he felt almost euphoric, and was amused at himself. There was nothing like completely ignoring your worries to help a guy really enjoy the moment.

He looked over at Levi. The man hadn’t moved, just stood still and watched with his shadowed eyes. Eren smiled.

“Waiting for me to back out? I won’t, you know.”

In the dim light, Eren saw Levi tilt his head so the curtain of black hair fell across his brow. “I have a feeling you get in trouble for jumping in head first a lot.”

“Sometimes.”

Levi pushed away from the door and slowly walked towards the bed. Using his knee, he nudged apart Eren’s legs until he could stand between them.

As he stared up into the shadowed face, Eren wondered what it was that made him so sure he could see something resembling tenderness in Levi’s expression.

Levi’s hands rested on his shoulders as he leaned down and pressed his lips to Eren’s. There was none of the frantic energy of the last kiss downstairs, but as Eren felt Levi’s tongue and lips play heavily with his he felt his own hunger building in his gut.

He was breathing unsteadily by the time Levi straightened, and as he raised his hands to try and unbutton Levi’s shirt he realized his fingers were trembling. After fumbling with the buttons and getting nowhere, he gave up and just tugged the fabric up until he exposed as much as he could of Levi’s stomach.

He felt his breathing hitch. He’d seen a lot of this particular tummy over the last day, but knowing he could let go of his restraint and explore it as much as he wanted was making his mouth go dry.

“Brat. You look like you’re getting ready to take a bite.” Levi’s voice was low and amused.

“Sorry.” Eren tore his eyes away and looked up into Levi’s face.

“Don’t be.” Levi lifted his hands to finish unbuttoning his shirt. As he pulled his shirt and t-shirt off, he said something else, but Eren wasn’t listening anymore as he watched the whole of Levi’s muscular chest come into view.

He couldn’t resist anymore. He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to the taut skin just beside the dent that ran up the center of Levi’s abdomen. He couldn’t help nipping slightly with his teeth and he felt the muscles beneath his mouth contract, but Levi didn’t push him away.

“You have a thing about my chest, don’t you.” Levi threaded his fingers through Eren’s hair.

“Uh huh.” Eren pulled back just far enough so he could watch his hands as they traveled over the contours of Levi’s rib cage.  

Levi let out a low chuckle, and Eren’s hands froze as his eyes shot up to Levi’s face. That had been a laugh. Levi had actually laughed.

Taking advantage of Eren’s momentary stillness, Levi reached down and gripped the hem of Eren’s sweater, dislodging Eren’s hands as he pulled it up.  “You’re so damn enthusiastic about everything.”

“Sorry.” Eren’s voice was muffled by the sweater.

“It’s a fucking turn on. Stop apologizing.”

Eren was glad his expression was hidden because there was no way he would have been able to hide the shock on his face at that. By the time he was free of the sweater he’d managed to collect himself somewhat.

“I don’t suppose you have any condoms or lotion?”

So much for collecting himself. Eren swallowed. “I do, actually.”

Levi raised a brow. “Where.”

“Um. In the box. On the top shelf” Eren gestured vaguely to the bookshelf just past the foot of his bed. As Levi walked away Eren suddenly felt the cold air of the room against his skin. He dropped his hands to grip at the side of the bed until his knuckles went white.

It wasn’t until Levi paused to stare at the painted box in his hands that Eren forgot all about nervousness and remembered why he should have planned ahead and gotten the stuff out ahead of time.

“Eren’s Happy Safe Love Box.” Levi slowly read out the words written in brightly colored puffy paint across the lid. He looked up into Eren’s mortified face. “This thing is covered in hearts and flowers.”

Eren pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and fell back onto the bed, groaning in embarrassment.  If anything was guaranteed to kill the mood it was the glittery box of condoms that looked like it had been decorated by a first grader. “It wasn’t me, I swear. My mom made them for all of us.” Hanji restocked the box occasionally, along with the similarly decorated first-aid boxes she’d given them, and none of her adoptive kids wanted to hurt her feelings by getting rid of them.

He heard the creak of hinges as Levi pushed up the lid. “Your mom made you a personalized box for your condoms and lube.”

“She’s really unique.”

He kept his hands over his face even as he felt the bed dip under Levi’s weight, but when he felt a hand tug at his wrist he let them both fall to rest on his chest as he looked over at Levi.

Levi’s cool fingers felt good against his skin as they stroked over his flushed cheek. The man was stretched out on his side with his head propped up on one elbow, and as Eren gazed up at him he could still read the faint traces of amusement in his eyes.

“Somehow it suits you.”

Eren huffed out a breath. “It does not.”

Levi leaned down and covered Eren’s mouth with his own. As he slipped in his tongue, his hand trailed down to circle a nipple. “You’re such a kid.”

Eren lifted his arms and wrapped them around Levi’s neck. “I’m not a kid.”

“Right.”

The kiss grew hungrier, and for a few minutes the only sounds were the wet slurps from their mouths and the rustling of the blanket beneath them.  

Eren felt Levi’s hand slip down past his stomach to undo the top button of his jeans and slide down his zipper. When the cold fingers wrapped around him he felt his whole body go tense.

Levi pulled back to watch Eren’s face as he let his hand slide up his cock from the base and over the tip. He kept repeating the motion, but just as Eren thought he was getting used to the sensation and might be able to start returning some of the attention to Levi, the hand gripping his shaft shifted to fist tightly just under the ridge. As Levi pumped his hand up and down Eren lost the ability to think.

A dim memory of the night before flashed into his head, of everything stopping after Levi made him come.   

“No, not yet.” In his current state it was all he could manage. He didn’t want this to end so soon.

Levi nipped at Eren’s neck, but he evidently understood because he pulled his hand away. Moving up onto his knees, he pulled at Eren’s arm until he sat up and shifted to the middle of the bed.

Tugging at Eren’s jeans and boxers, Levi yanked them down his legs as Eren lifted his hips off the bed. When he had him completely naked, he reached down and undid his own pants, pushing them down low on his hips so Eren could just see the bulge of his erection pressing against his boxers.

That was evidently all he intended to do for the moment as he leaned over and picked up the box he’d set on the bedside table.

Eren grabbed his hand.

“Take them off.”

Levi paused and looked back at him.

“Be naked too, please.” Eren was not finding it easy to put his muddled thoughts into words, but Levi evidently had no problem understanding him because the corner of his mouth crooked up and he shifted to stand by the bed.

He pushed his pants and boxers down, and stepped free of them. Naked, he reached down and pumped his fist over his own dick, his eyes on Eren.

Eren swallowed nervously, but he was already unbearably aroused, and let his legs fall open without hesitation as Levi climbed back onto the bed and moved to kneel between them.

Levi grabbed one of the tubes of lotion from the box and was twisting it open when he suddenly froze.

“What the fuck is this shit?” Levi held up the brown plastic tube. “Why the hell do you have cola flavored lubricant?”

In spite of everything Eren started laughing at the disgust on Levi’s face. “It’s my mom, I swear. She thinks it’s interesting-”

“I have a feeling I don’t ever want to meet your mom.” Still crouched between Eren’s knees, Levi muttered to himself as he shuffled through the box. Pulling out a plain blue and white bottle, he poured some into his hand and rubbed them together.

Eren’s laughter turned into a groan as Levi’s slick hands came down and slid over his shaft. He’d thought the way Levi had used his hands before had been amazing, but that was nothing to how they felt now. Eren was panting and moaning in seconds.

One slippery hand worked over his shaft, palming the head and then moving up and down all the way to the base, and the other tugged gently at his balls. Eren found himself close to orgasm embarrassingly quickly, but Levi seemed to know exactly when he needed to slow down and ease his grip just enough to keep Eren going.

The hand at his balls glided down along his taint to circle the tight ring of nerves below. Eren barely had time to clench his hands in the blanket at his side before he felt something slip inside him.

The feeling was strange, not painful but not exactly pleasurable either.

Levi slipped a second wet finger in, and used his other hand to give Eren’s shaft one final stroke before leaning forward to latch his mouth over Eren’s nipple.

This finger hurt a bit more, but as they kept slipping in and out, some nameless urge was spreading through Eren’s body. He didn’t know what he wanted but he wanted something more. When Levi poured more lotion on his hand and slipped in a third finger, Eren wasn’t quite ready for how tight everything suddenly felt, and he let out a long moan even as his hips started pushing back into Levi’s hand.

As the fingers inside him pressed deeper, Levi did something that made a jolt of white hot heat surge up his spine and down his limbs. He felt his insides tightening around the fingers, and he heard Levi’s already heavy breathing go erratic.

He’d heard about the whole prostate thing, but this was nothing like he’d imagined.

Levi shifted back to his haunches and pulled his hand away. Eren could barely focus as he watched Levi grab a small packet from the box and rip it open.

The man was swearing even as he rolled the condom over his erection.

“Fucking bullshit. Who the hell uses green fucking condoms.”  He dribbled some of the lotion over himself. Eren felt a strange sort of pride over the way Levi’s vocabulary seemed to have disintegrated. “If I didn’t need to fuck you so fucking badly right now-” He trailed off as he leaned forward, pulling Eren’s waist towards him so his spread legs draped over the man’s thighs.

Eren reached up for something to hold as he felt the thick head start to push past the tight ring of his ass. His fumbling hands ended up clenched in the pillow as his back arched up off the bed.

It hurt. And yet at the same time Eren was finding it harder and harder to differentiate pain from pleasure.

Levi slowly pushed deeper into Eren. They were both breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. Eren watched Levi’s face as he felt the man fill him completely. His pale eyes were half closed, his mouth slightly open and his chest was heaving as his pale skin seemed to glow in the dim light coming in through the window.

If Eren could have strung the words together he would have told Levi that he was beautiful.

As it was the only sounds he was managing were moans and the occasional whimper as Levi slowly pulled back until only the head of his cock was still inside Eren, and then pushed forward again, his hands gripping Eren’s hips tightly.

Eren felt his ass clenching as Levi thrust forward with a strangled moan. As they rocked against each other, the discomfort faded until all Eren felt was wave after wave of pleasure as Levi moved inside him.

Curling his torso forward, Eren pushed himself up so could wrap an arm around Levi’s neck and catch his mouth in a sloppy kiss. Levi leaned forward, lifting a hand to press against the back of Eren’s head. Even as their tongues tangled together, Eren felt Levi hit that spot inside him and his limbs turned to jelly. The arm that had been holding him up collapsed and he fell back to the bed.

Levi angled their hips as he pushed in and out, moving faster now. He kept hitting Eren’s prostate every few strokes and Eren couldn’t stop whimpering as his hips started twitching in Levi’s grasp. Everything in Eren went still as Levi thrust one last time and then his vision went black and he felt himself contract around the thick object in his ass as he came undone.

The aftershocks were still making his body jerk when he watched Levi stiffen over him, throwing his head back as he pulsed inside Eren.

Levi pulled out with a strangled moan and he collapsed face down into the bed, his legs still partly draped over Eren.

As they lay there, their chests heaving, Eren felt his eyes drifting shut. Every muscle in his body felt weak, and he couldn’t work up the energy to even shift his legs together, let alone get under the blanket.

He managed to turn his head as he felt the bed moving, and watched as Levi pulled off the condom and got to his feet. He was incredibly satisfied to see Levi’s legs were unsteady as he walked to the bathroom.

The next thing he was aware of was something cold running over his chest. He cracked open his eyes and saw Levi was wiping him down with a wet towel.

“It’s cold.”

Levi glanced up into Eren’s face. “Next time we’ll do this in the barn, so we’ll have hot water afterwards.”

Eren laughed. He thought Levi was probably joking.

The sleepiness backed off a little as Levi ran the towel down over his inner thighs. He started to shift them together.

“Ah. I can-“

Levi raised a brow and Eren stilled. “Don’t bother being embarrassed now.” He pushed Eren’s knees up and pressed a finger wrapped in the wet towel back into Eren, and then moved up to softly rub the towel over Eren’s groin.

Eren’s mouth fell open on a low moan, and the look on Levi’s face said he was enjoying himself far too much for a simple towel bath. Pulling away with a smirk, Levi walked back to the bathroom.

By the time Levi climbed back into the bed, Eren had found enough energy to work his way under the covers. The bed shifted as Levi eased down behind him, his back to the wall as he draped an arm over Eren’s waist.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to spoon if the taller…” Eren glanced back over his shoulder and Levi’s glare stopped him mid-sentence.

He quickly turned his head so the older man wouldn’t see the grin on his face. To be honest, he liked the feel of Levi wrapped around him, and he snuggled back into the warmth at his back.

They were silent as Eren watched the snow fall outside his window, illuminated by the distant light from the stables. The only sound was their breathing, and the hum of the generators muffled by distance and snow. As Eren felt the slow rise and fall of Levi’s chest against his back, he realized he couldn't ever remember feeling as content as he did right at this moment.

If it cleared up and was sunny tomorrow, things would change. He’d have to start worrying about stupid things like futures and consequences again, but in the _right now_ , he was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter starts focusing on the whole 'enigmatic stranger' thing and the 'can he trust him' problem from the synopsis, so I wanted to have a happy chapter first. Hope you enjoyed it :)


	9. Snowblind Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after, and Eren is beginning to realize he really doesn't know as much about Levi as he should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the last chapter was the end of the 'getting to know you' arc, this week's chapter is basically the start of the 'whoops I really don't know all that much about you' arc. 
> 
> (Which is my excuse for being a day late. Working out plot points and all that.)

Eren woke in a warm nest of blankets, still wrapped in Levi’s arms.

He yawned and scrubbed at his eyes, blinking sleepily in the grey-blue light of early dawn that filled the room. He thought it might be about seven, maybe seven thirty. Most days he’d already be up and in the barn by now.  

He slowly stretched out his legs, wincing a little at the unfamiliar soreness in his thighs and lower back. Even so, he found himself smiling as he tucked his body back into place against the warmth of the man behind him.

Levi had shifted down underneath the blanket so his thighs could curve under Eren’s butt. In this position, his head only came to Eren’s shoulder blades. His arms were around the taller man’s waist, and Eren could feel the soft puffs of air against his back as he breathed evenly in sleep.

Eren figured telling Levi he found his height adorable would rank high on the list of stupid things to do, but he turned his smiling face into the pillow and thought it loudly.

He was wide awake now, and didn’t want to miss this golden opportunity. Carefully lifting the hand at his waist, he scooted down the mattress, pushing the blanket off of Levi and down to their waists as he eased himself around until he could look directly into Levi’s sleeping face.

It was the first time he’d been able to study Levi’s features like this – the first night he’d been far more worried about the blue tinge to his skin than the delicacy of his jaw line – so Eren let himself look his fill.

In sleep, there was nothing to distract from the beauty of Levi’s face. Black lashed fanned over smoothly rounded cheeks, a narrow nose led down to a small, perfectly shaped mouth and a gently pointed chin. His face wasn’t feminine, precisely, but without the intensity of his hooded gaze, and his usual expressions of boredom or irritation, only the thin slashes of his eyebrows and his short, undercut hairstyle tilted the overall impression of his face to the masculine side of androgynous.

The dark rings under his eyes didn’t ease even in sleep, and as Eren lifted a hand to brush back the black strands that had fallen over the pale skin of Levi’s cheek, he let his thumb stroke across the shadowy smudge. Levi shifted slightly, and Eren jerked his hand back.

He pressed his hands back against his own chest. He didn’t want Levi to wake up just yet.

Letting his eyes drift down, Eren happily looked over the chest that had fascinated him so much the night before. It was taut, muscular, and compact. It wasn’t bulky, which – taking Levi’s weight into account – made Eren think that the guy had no fat on him at all. He was pure lean muscle.

Why this man aroused him so easily, when Eren had long since decided that sex just wasn’t a thing for him, was a mystery. He’d seen plenty of well-built people, both male and female, and he’d never felt all that much more than an aesthetic appreciation.

Annie - the only other person he’d ever gone this far with - had trained in wrestling for most of her life, so she hadn’t lacked anything in terms of muscle definition. Maybe that was Eren’s thing but it had just increased in intensity over the past five years.  

He huffed out a breath. He knew that wasn’t it. He’d never found himself unable to tear his eyes away from Mikasa’s biceps, and she was probably physically the closest you could get to Levi in female form.  

He knew comparing Annie to Levi wasn’t going to get him anywhere. His relationship with Annie hadn’t been built on anything sexual in the first place. They’d gravitated towards each other in elementary school, as two kids with famous fathers that weren’t quite as nice as they seemed on TV. When they’d hit middle school, they’d wound up dating because all their friends assumed they already were, and in high school sex had seemed the thing to do - so they had.

After they'd broken up, he’d suspected he might be gay, but the few experiments he’d managed in the short time he’d had before his current hermit like existence had begun had made him think the reason he’d never been able to get into sex was just the way he was, and nothing to do with his partner's gender.

Eren shook his head, and pushed away the thoughts of Annie, along with the usual mix of guilt and sadness that always came along with any reminders of her.

Deliberately, he let his eyes linger on the bruising that started with a patch over Levi’s right shoulder and carried on in small dark blotches around the center of his rib cage, and then again at his hips. The marks had darkened, Eren couldn’t see too much but he thought they were turning shades of purple and yellow now. He’d recognized it as a seatbelt bruise when he’d stripped Levi ‘s frozen clothes off - he’d seen the same pattern on his friend Connie back in high school after Connie and his best friend Sasha had totaled her dad’s car one night.

Eren frowned, as he realized what had been tickling the back of his mind every time he'd seen the markings. The bruise was identical to Connie’s. But Connie hadn’t been driving.

He clearly remembered all the guys in the locker room picking on the kid, teasing him about being so gallant that he would have tried to protect Sasha and tell the cops he’d been the one driving, if their seatbelt bruises hadn’t given them away.

But Levi had said there hadn’t been anyone else with him. He had been half out of it, but Eren was sure he’d have mentioned it by now if he’d left someone behind. As he reached out and ran his fingers along the mottled line, Eren tried to think of how Levi might have wound up with bruising from a passenger side seatbelt, if he’d been the only one in the truck.

Levi stirred, and Eren watched the pale eyes blink open and slowly focus on his. As the corner of Levi’s brow arched up, Eren knew the man had realized he’d been looking him over. He felt his cheeks heat.

“Good morning.” The delivery wasn’t quite as unaffected as Eren would have liked, but at least his voice didn’t shake.

“Morning.”

“Did you sleep well?”

Levi had started to sit up, but he paused at the question to look at Eren’s flustered face. The corner of his lips crooked up. “Yes, I slept well.”

As Levi carried on shifting to lean against the wooden headboard, Eren told himself not to bother saying anything if he couldn’t think of something a little less inane.

Eren scooted back up the bed so his head was on his own pillow. As he eased onto his back, he felt a twinge of pain in his hips.

Levi must have caught his involuntary twitch. He cocked a brow. “Sore?”

Biting his lip, Eren looked up into Levi’s face, expecting to see amusement. There wasn’t any. The pale blue eyes were calm and very direct. “A little.”

“You’ll be a lot sorer when you stand up.” Eren found he was able to tamp down the instinctive embarrassment at Levi’s matter of fact tone.

The man shifted his gaze to the window. “If it snowed like that all night, I’d say we have at least another foot of snow.”

Startled, Eren turned to look. He hadn’t paid any attention earlier, but now he registered the snow falling thickly outside.

“You don't have any curtains?”

Eren looked back at Levi. “Yeah. The glass is treated on the outside so no one can see in.” He hesitated, then blurted out the rest, “It’s the small spaces thing. Sometimes even normal rooms are a problem, if there aren’t any windows.” His room was in the corner of the house, and Hanji had filled two full sides with more glass than wall, all completely uncovered.

Levi just nodded, and Eren turned back to look outside. As they watched, hints of orange sky began to shine through the distant breaks in the clouds over the treeline.

Eren puffed out a breath, and moved to his side so he faced Levi. “I just - I’ve never been thankful for anything to do with that whole thing before.” At Levi’s raised brow, he forced himself to say the stupid word. “The claustrophobia, I mean.  But the only reason I was downstairs and close enough to hear you on the porch yesterday night was because I was having trouble dealing, so I went to hang out in the living room. So basically I’m glad.” He knew he was bright red by the time he finished, and it was mawkish and sentimental, but he’d had to say it.

Levi blinked, and said nothing. A moment later, before Eren had fully realized what was happening, Levi leaned over and pulled at him, maneuvering until Eren's back rested against Levi as they both looked out onto the walls of windows.

Slowly, he made himself relax, and let the back of his head rest against Levi's shoulder.

“You know, the way you just blurt out every fucking thing you’re thinking is really disconcerting.”

“Sor-” Eren cut himself off. “Um. Thank you?”

“Right.” The arms tightened around him.

Eren didn't bother holding back his grin.

In silence, they watched the sky lighten shade by shade, until daylight lit up the snow.

Eren suddenly remembered what he’d been looking at when Levi woke. “By the way, why do you have bruising from a passenger side seatbelt?”

Levi paused. After a moment Eren felt the shoulder behind him lift in a shrug.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a bruise from something else. I don’t remember the actual accident too well.”

Eren tilted his head back so he could look up at Levi. “But you were driving, right?”

Levi’s expression was as bland as ever. “Of course.”

_He’s hiding something._

Turning back to the window, Eren shrugged off the little voice in his head. As much as he thought he could read into every twitch of Levi’s eyebrows, he’d only known the man for a day. There was no way he’d learned enough about him to be able to detect if he was lying or not.

And why would Levi lie about something like that?

“Do you have any cars here that could get through the snow if you needed to?” Levi’s voice was a welcome distraction.

“There are a couple snowmobiles, but otherwise we just have my bike. We’re pretty self-sufficient so it isn’t usually a problem if we can’t get into town when the van is being used.”

“From the money that’s obviously been spent on this place, the only way it would be self-sufficient is if the cows shit solid gold.”

“Yeah, the animals are more pets than anything.” Eren had wondered if Levi had noticed, but really just about anyone who’d had anything to do with ranch animals before would find it hard not to see the extreme disparity between the quality of the buildings and equipment, and the unsellable nature of the animals they kept.

“The rest of my family is actually really good with computers and... various things, so we just grow food for ourselves, and buy and store whatever else we need.”

“So what do you do with the cattle if you don’t sell them?”

“We feed them, and they live long lives before happily going of old age.” Eren softly laughed. “The local ranchers used to shake their heads and sigh every time they’d see us, but now anytime they have an old cow they’re too fond of to use for meat, they’ll bring it out here. We’ve become the local livestock nursing home.”

“This whole place is ridiculous.”

Eren tilted his head back and grinned up at Levi, inordinately pleased by the amusement he could see on the man’s face. “Yeah, it used to be a normal ranch, until Hanji took it over, but…” He broke off as he felt Levi go still behind him.

"Hanji?"

"Yeah, Hanji is my foster mom."

After a long silent minute, Levi pulled away, climbing over Eren to sit on the edge of the bed as he reached for his borrowed clothes.

“This is Zoe Hanji’s place.”  It wasn’t a question.

Feeling suddenly cold, Eren sat up against the headboard and pulled the covers up close around his chest. He watched Levi stand and pick up the clothes they’d strewn over the floor the night before. “You know Hanji?”

Levi paused, and then bent to pick up a pair of jeans. For once Eren wasn’t having any trouble keeping his eyes from straying to Levi’s bare skin. He couldn't have turned them away from Levi's scowling face even if he'd wanted to. “She’s pretty famous.” He shot a quick glance back at Eren’s face. “So you're one of her kids?”

“Yeah, she adopted us when my dad…” Eren trailed off.

“You’re Dr. Yeager’s kid.”

Eren stiffened, and realized he was finding it hard to breath evenly. “Yes. So?”

Levi caught the quaver in his voice, and he stopped moving and turned his head to study Eren. His anxiousness must have been completely obvious, because the frown on Levi’s face slipped away.

Setting the clothes down on top of the hamper, Levi walked back over and climbed back onto the mattress until he could brace his arms on either side of Eren’s head.

He moved in close until his hooded eyes were just inches away. “Stop worrying. You’re far too entertaining for me to run screaming just because of who your father was.”

Swallowing, Eren nodded, but as Levi leaned in for a quick kiss and then pulled away, he had to work very hard to push away the anxiety.

“Stay there for a bit. I’ll heat some water. You’ll want to take it easy for today.”

Eren blinked. "Why? I wondered about that too, but I should be fine.” His hips ached, but it was nowhere near as bad as he’d feared.

Levi raised a brow, and this time there was definitely amusement in his eyes. “Stand up.”

Shifting to edge of bed, Eren tried to stand. And wound up sitting back down again. He looked up at Levi in shock and reached back to rub between his hips. His legs felt weak, and he couldn't quite straighten his back.

Levi was doing whatever he did that made Eren feel like he was secretly being laughed at. “That’s why.” He moved closer and tugged lightly at a clump of Eren’s messy hair. “It’ll ease up a bit as you move around, but I’ll handle the cows on my own this morning, you can wash the bedsheets.”

“But I just washed them yesterday-” Eren’s eyes went wide as he remembered what exactly they’d been doing on the sheets since he’d cleaned them.

Levi had walked back to the door. It wasn’t until his hand was on the doorknob that Eren realized he was still stark naked.

“If you plan on us sleeping there tonight, you’ll want to change them.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Unless you’ve got another place you’d like to try?”

Flushing, Eren just shook his head. And let himself fully enjoy the sight of Levi’s naked butt as he walked out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the messages and comments. The feedback from you guys is basically the fuel that keeps me going. That and coffee. But the feedback is definitely my favorite.


	10. Snowblind Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The signs are starting to add up, and Eren is having a hard time ignoring them. Can Levi really be trusted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, because it was either end at this point, or on a really, really bad cliffhanger. 
> 
> On the plus side, that means that next week's chapter may be out a little early, as it's already half written.

 

Predictably, Mikasa had freaked out over Eren’s ‘light and easy’ text message.

“ON MY WAY. STAY INSIDE HOUSE LOCK ALL DOORS. KEEP KNIFE CLOSE AT ALL TIMES.”

Forcing out a slow, controlled breath, Eren turned and flopped backwards onto the bed. He stared up at the ceiling as he pressed the phone to his chest. He wasn’t worried about a frantic Mikasa turning up just yet - he’d long since learned to check messages from Armin before opening any from the less practical members of his family, so he knew his brother had managed to talk her into staying put until at least noon.

But at some point she’d be here, and he’d have to deal with an overprotective sister who could both irritate and scare the shit out of him when she got too riled up. Last time she’d panicked, he’d had to get Armin’s help to stop her from waiting outside the door for him every time he went to the bathroom.

He braced himself before lifting the phone to check the rest of her messages.

“Who the fuck is he? Where did he come from? BE CAREFUL. Make sure you lock your door when you sleep. Whoever it is can stay in the barn.” Eren flinched at that and tried very hard not to think about Mikasa’s reaction if she ever found out exactly where Levi had spent the night.

Skimming through the next three messages, Eren was pretty sure she’d talked someone at the sheriff’s office into getting her the records of every open incident within maybe a hundred miles - that or the dickwad had gotten them for her – because she started listing them all out, one after the other.  

Unless she was expecting him to run down the list and ask Levi if he was behind any of it, Eren was pretty sure she was trying to get him to worry along with her.

The last message cut off mid-sentence, so Eren knew more was coming, but he was done. Dropping the hand holding the phone to his side, he draped his other arm over his eyes and tried to let his confused thoughts dissipate into the darkness behind his eyelids. Usually, when Mikasa tried to convince him something was dangerous, he’d shrug it off, laugh, or occasionally get angry. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t make the sick feeling in his stomach go away this time.

The odd bruising and the way Levi didn’t like talking about himself were so easy to disregard, Eren hadn’t even realized the little flickers of awareness were stacking up in his head until breakfast that morning.

He really wished Levi hadn’t brought up the guns.

With a groan, Eren jumped up from the bed and plugged the phone back in, deliberately laying it face down on the dresser so he wouldn’t see the light from new messages coming in.

As he left his room and clattered down the stairs, he told himself he was just overthinking things, and that he was letting his own instinctive discomfort with the long distance weapons spread to a blameless man.

When Levi had asked if they kept guns on the ranch, Eren had been so startled he’d found himself staring at the man calmly eating breakfast across from him, while Eren’s own forkful of the best scrambled eggs he’d ever tasted froze halfway up to his mouth.

“Yes, we have some. But why-“

“I’d feel more comfortable carrying one while I’m outside.” Levi’s eyes had flicked up to meet his, before shifting back to his plate. “You do get wolves up in this part of the state, don’t you?”

“A few, but there’s plenty of easy game, so they don’t usually come near areas where humans are.” Eren had let his fork drop with a clatter, his appetite gone.

“With this weather, they can be unpredictable.” Laying his own knife and fork down neatly across his plate, Levi had patted his mouth with a napkin before leaning back and settling his gaze firmly on Eren. “I know how to handle them, if you’re wondering.”

Eren hadn’t been wondering. If he’d stopped to think about it, he’d have bet money on Levi being competent, at the very least.

But as they’d stood in front of the main weapons cabinet outside Hanji’s room, and he’d watched the man smoothly handle a semi-automatic pistol that had nothing at all to do with wild animals, it was very easy to see that Levi was more than just a little familiar with guns. His motions were quick and fluid as he loaded the magazine, inserting it into the pistol and racking the slide, before sliding the gun into the concealed carry holster he’d tucked into his waistband. The only person Eren had ever seen handle guns with anything approaching Levi’s well practiced ease was Mikasa.

Eren didn’t like guns. Something about the way they could do so much damage from a distance, without any chance to fight back, had always seemed so very unnatural to him. Knowing that, Mikasa had put extra effort into becoming proficient, training as often as she could so if some gunman ever did come after him, she’d be ready. She was very, very good. Levi was better.

Standing on the bottom step, Eren told himself to drop it. Being able to handle guns well said nothing at all about Levi’s character, or his past. It only meant he knew how to use guns. That was it.

Shaking his head, Eren determinedly turned and headed into the kitchen to start the now familiar pre-lunch routine of sterilizing all the surfaces. Briefly, he remembered Mikasa asking him to put on his knife, and decided he’d worry about that later.

Putting it on now would feel too much like giving in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The limit of my understanding of guns, before this chapter, was that they shoot various types of bullets various distances in various ways, and I'd never expected to want to know more than that. 
> 
> So that one paragraph up there took an embarrassing amount of time to research for so little detail, and I most likely still got some of it wrong. If you know guns and find yourself flinching over some glaring mistake I made, I'm sorry, and I'll keep learning so next time I'll do better. (But please let me know so I can fix it)


	11. Snowblind Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren decides he's had enough of just waiting in the house, and goes to help Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't say anything much about this chapter without spoiling it, but... lots of stuff happens. 
> 
> It's mostly all super important.

 

Eren shivered and hunched his shoulders as he stepped out onto the porch. He quickly fumbled with the zipper of his coat, pulling it all the way up to his chin before hurriedly stuffing his hands into his gloves, glad he’d remembered to put them in his pockets when he’d pulled them off the night before.

From the way the air seared the inside of his lungs, he figured the temperature must have dropped very close to zero. On the plus side, that meant that the new snow coming down was thin and powdery, and didn’t add too much height to the knee deep snow they’d already had over the past day and a half.

On the not-so-plus side, it was very, very cold.

As he trudged along the trench he and Levi had worn between the barn and the house, Eren realized the patches of color they’d watched appearing from between the clouds that morning were long gone. The world surrounding the house was white, and grey. Even the bright red of the painted barn seemed dim behind the haze of the snow.

For a moment he paused, halfway between the barn and the house, struck by how still everything was. The world seemed to have frozen in place under the blanket of white.

Nothing moved but the softly falling snow.

His breathing sounded too loud, harsh in his ears, and he wondered when exactly the wind had stopped. At this distance, the ever present hum of the generators was so faint that he wasn’t entirely sure he could hear them at all.

As his eyes swept over the veiled shadows of the trees, he realized that – as unlikely as a wolf or a bear attacking usually was – he could understand why Levi had felt the need for a weapon.

The silence wasn’t peaceful, it was heavy.

He’d forgotten to get his knife. For a moment, he considered going back to the house for it, or even finding something to do inside until Levi came back for dinner.

But that would be silly. He was getting spooked by quite literally nothing. Not to mention he’d already tried occupying himself, and he’d been bored out of his mind.

So he shook the mood off, and carried on working his way through the snow.

As he got closer to the barn, the generator noise grew louder, and he felt some of the lingering discomfort ease. It wasn’t until he was halfway up the ramp to the barn doors that he noticed something was wrong with the racket the generators usually made.

The generators were in two rooms on either side of the barn’s bottom floor. The ones that ran the heat, water, and most anything else deemed vital were in a large room off from the cattle area, while all the lights were run by a larger, older generator that had been built into the floor in a room at the other side of the barn.

The ancient thing usually made as much noise as all the others combined, but as Eren paused and listened, he couldn’t hear anything at all coming from that direction.

He moved back to the base of the ramp. There were fresh prints heading from the barn down towards the newer generators – Eren had pointed out that room yesterday. He hadn’t thought to mention the other generator though.

He hesitated. He knew he should just go and hit the thing with a hammer – that was usually all it took to fix it – there was no need to follow Levi’s tracks and bring him along, no matter how much he wanted to be around the man.

With a muttered curse, Eren turned and started making his way through the unbroken snow along the front of the barn.

As he came to the corner and looked down along the side of the building, he wanted to cheer. The door to the generator room was already open. Levi must have found it on his own.

Ridiculously pleased that he’d have Levi for company in the small box of a room, Eren slid down the slope, not bothering with the stairs that had been cut into the bank further along. He regretted it a little when he landed chest deep in the snow the wind had piled up at the bottom, but only a little.

There was no way to move through snow that deep with any dignity, so he didn’t bother trying, grateful that Levi didn’t see him as he scrambled through to the shallower snow.

He was still half laughing at himself when finally made it to the open doorway, but as he looked into the room he felt his smile fade. The room ran on emergency lights, so it was always well lit no matter what. Today the room was pitch black.

He took a deliberate step back.

“Levi?”

There was no answer. His eyes started to adjust a little, and he could dimly see the flashing red light that meant the generator wasn’t running. He couldn’t see anything else, no one seemed to be there.

But the door had been open.

“Hey Levi, you in there?”

Biting his lip, he looked down at the ground. There were prints going back and forth, several times, leading around the back of the building.

There was no way he was going inside the room, so this time the choice was simple. He pushed the door firmly shut, and followed the path of prints.

They led around the corner, to a small door at the back of the barn. He was surprised – the door was very hard to find from the inside, unless you knew it was there, but there were no prints coming around the outside.

There was, however, a large snow covered lump up against the wall.

Eren took one slow step, and then started running as fast as he could. The heap was about the size of a large cow, and while he didn’t remember any of the cattle being unaccounted for-

He fell to his knees and started brushing snow away. His gloved hands quickly found the surface beneath.

He paused, then carried on brushing the snow away until he could see enough to know for sure what it was. It wasn’t an animal. It was a snowmobile.

Slowly, Eren stood up, absentmindedly brushing the wet residue of the snow away from his face with his equally wet arm as he stared down at the black plastic surface he’d uncovered. The Shinganshina ranch didn’t own any black snowmobiles.

Besides that, no one had been on the farm since it had started snowing enough for the thing to be usable, apart from Eren. And Levi.

But that didn’t make any sense.

Eren _knew_ Levi had been nearly dead from cold when he’d found him on his porch. And he’d been dunked in water up to his chest, even if he’d somehow driven here, walking through the storm to the house in the condition he’d been in would have been damn near impossible.

But then walking up from the lake was just as impossible, maybe even more so.

Eren backed away and slowly starting walking back the way he had come. He wanted to ask Levi what was going on, but not yet. He didn’t want to see Levi yet.

His mind was racing in blurry circles as he rounded the corner of the barn, which was probably the main reason he didn’t notice the generator door was open again until a split second after he passed the shadowy doorway.

By then it was too late.

For a heartbeat, as the gloved hand clamped over his mouth and yanked him back, Eren felt every muscle in his body freeze in remembered terror.

And then the rage kicked in and pushed away the fear. He jabbed an elbow back, and dropped his weight. Even as his training had him lifting his free hand to yank at the middle fingers of the arm wrapped tightly around his waist, he felt the hand over his mouth shift up to pinch at his nose and cut off his breathing.

It was unreasoning fury that had Eren twisting his head until he could close his teeth over the bottom of the hand at his mouth. As he bit down with all his strength and anger, he heard a soft snapping sound and felt something give way through the glove a second before the man behind him started screaming.

It wasn’t Levi.

The arms let go, shoving Eren forward. He was too close and too disoriented to catch himself before his head cracked against the wall, and he fell to his knees.

“Shit. Shit. You fucking animal.” The large figure closed in, and Eren caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar bearded face before he felt the man’s boot land in his stomach.

The foot pulled back for another kick, and Eren ducked away. His back hit the wall, and then the wall disappeared as he shifted sideways. Without thinking, he scooted backwards across the doorjamb.

The man was cradling his hand against his chest, but he was huge, built like a bear, filling up most of the doorway as he started to follow after Eren.

Desperately calculating, Eren was braced for an attack, which was why it took him just a second too long to realize the man was slamming the door shut.

Eren threw himself forward and landed against the door just as he heard the wooden beam on the outside slide into place.

He was locked in.

He shut his eyes and pressed his palms flat to the surface of the door.  He tried to tell himself to stay calm and listen, try and work out what was going on outside. He was trying so hard to force back the panic that his hands had fisted and started banging on the door before he consciously realized what he was going to do.

He didn’t notice when his fists unclenched and he started trying to claw through the wood.

_Can’t breath._

He dropped to his knees, and tried prying at the bottom of the door. He didn’t register the pain when his fingers started bleeding. He just noticed his hands were too slippery to grip at the wood anymore.

Turning back, he pressed his back against the door as he crouched, looking frantically around the room. The red light of the generator kept endlessly flashing, dimly lighting the room and then leaving it completely dark, again and again.

Eren opened his mouth as he felt his lungs start to struggle to get enough oxygen. Some part of his mind knew that was wrong, that there was no shortage of air flowing through the room, but that part was nowhere near strong enough to convince his body he wasn’t suffocating.

He slid down to sit on the floor and his hands braced on the concrete, trying to find a solid surface. The flashing light seemed to be getting slower, as if time was slowing down while his heart pounded faster and faster in his ears.

He put his hands over face, tried to block it out. When his hands slid over his face, he realized he was crying.

Time seemed to stretch, he had no idea how long had passed as he rocked in place. But suddenly he couldn’t remember if that was really the door he was leaning against. Had it moved?

Had he moved? He needed to get someplace safer.

As he crawled, he had no idea where he was going, all he knew was that he needed to get somewhere less exposed. The door had gone missing, he didn’t know where it was anymore. When his shoulder hit a wall, he followed it with his hand until he found a corner.

Carefully wedging himself in until he couldn’t feel any air at his back, he pulled his legs up so he could bury his face in his knees with hands over his head.

Everything was black behind his eyelids, and he did his best to focus on that.

He didn’t hear the sound of someone calling his name, or see the door open.

He didn’t feel the hands that gently moved his arms away from his head, and lifted his face to the light.

The first he knew, he was floating. He opened his eyes and saw grey sky, and the side of Levi’s face.

He blinked, as slowly some awareness returned. He wasn’t trapped. Levi was carrying him. He was safe.

He let himself slip into unconsciousness.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments and messages here and on Tumblr. 
> 
> Work was a nightmare, so I didn't get to answer them yet, but it's almost bizarre how much they each make me want to hurry up and write some more to answer all the 'what the hell is up with Levi' questions. 
> 
> I appreciate them all a lot :)


	12. Firelight Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi treats Eren's wounds, and Eren decides it's time to start asking questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand it's time for answers to a few of the questions. A few. 
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and support! You guys are awesome :)

 

As Eren sat stiffly on the couch, clutching at the blanket Levi had draped across his shoulders, his gaze stayed rigidly fixed on the black ashes coating the stone floor of the cold fireplace.  Most of his consciousness was comfortably hazy, nearly completely blocking out the tiny portion of his mind that was still trapped in the little black room on the bottom floor of the barn.

Distantly, he watched as Levi pulled at the coffee table until he could sit directly in front of him, his knees boxing in Eren’s. A flicker of something that might have registered as alarm - if he’d been able to feel it a little more clearly - ran up his spine, as Levi’s solidly built torso slid in front of his eyes, blocking his view so that for a moment all he could see was the dark blue of Armin’s old shirt.

It wasn’t until he felt the cold, wet cloth gently running over his face that his awareness started to seep back in.

The first thing he saw clearly was Levi’s face, and for a moment, their eyes met. Levi’s hands paused, but he said nothing, and as he carried on Eren found himself taking comfort in the man’s calm lack of expression.

If Levi saw no reason to worry, somehow Eren felt like everything would be ok.

The wet cloth pulled away from his face, and Eren blinked as he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He glanced down and was startled to see the water in the bowl at Levi’s side turn pink as he rinsed out the cloth.

He had a dim memory of his face feeling wet, but he’d thought that was tears. He couldn’t recall hitting his head on anything.

Shifting to clasp the blanket with one hand, he lifted the other to feel at his face for any cuts.

“What the _fuck_.” Eren jerked as Levi grabbed his wrist. “What the hell did you do to your hands.” 

Eren’s eyes followed Levi’s gaze, and he sucked in a breath. His knuckles were scraped raw, and the backs of his hands were coated with smeared blood. 

"I was scratching at the door, I didn’t realize-“ He let go of the blanket and put his other hand out next to the first, still held tightly in Levi’s grasp. As if he’d needed to see the damage first before his mind would let him feel it, he suddenly became aware of the stinging pain where he’d taken the skin off, and the deep ache in his joints. The tips of his fingers were numb, and he’d worn his nails down to the quick. He flipped his free hand over, and saw the crescent marks where his nails had dug in when he’d first fisted his hands to pound at the door.

“Why weren’t you wearing gloves? It’s fucking cold out there.”

Eren’s eyes widened. “I was – I put them on when I left the house. I must have taken them off.” He looked up, embarrassed. “I kind of lost it in there.”  

Levi stood abruptly, and Eren felt his heart stutter at the look in the sharp, pale blue eyes.

Levi wasn’t calm in the slightest. 

“Don’t move.” He stalked away, and Eren stared after him, pulling the blanket tight around his body again. He ignored the pain he was now fully aware of as he clenched his hands in the fabric.

When Levi came back less than a minute later, he was carrying Armin’s first-aid kit.  As he sat back down and started cleaning Eren’s hands, the younger man found his attention lingering on the glittery red crosses and yellow smiley faces that decorated the sides of the large box.

“I’m sorry.” Eren’s eyes shot back to Levi’s face. “That was a trap set for me, and you walked right into it.”

“You knew there was someone else here?”

“No. I wondered, but when the lights went I was pretty sure. I was planning on waiting him out – that asshole never did have much patience. But then you walked right in.”

“You know him?” Eren’s heart sank.

The cool hands stilled for a fraction of a second. “Yes.” Levi didn’t look up as he opened an antiseptic wipe and swabbed it over Eren’s knuckles.

Eren barely felt the sting. “Were you really the one driving when your truck crashed?"

“No.”

“You lied.”

Levi said nothing for a moment. “Yes.”

“Why.”

“Habit. And I didn’t think there was any need for you to worry.” He glanced up and met Eren’s eyes as he added. “I didn’t want to have to tell you about that part of things just yet.”

Eren scowled, switching his gaze down as he watched Levi started to wrap the long bandage around one of his hands.

“Are you working with him?”

“No.” Levi snipped the white cloth. “Not currently.”

Eren’s mind was circling. How did you go about asking someone if they were a bad person?

But then, Armin would say the truth of any answer you got to that question would be subjective. And in any case, as he watched Levi’s fingers gently and competently bandaging his hands, Eren couldn’t make himself see the man as dangerous to him.

“You really work in sales?”

“I did.”

“Selling what.”

Levi’s eyes flicked up. “Stuff. I don’t anymore.”

Eren’s eyes narrowed as he saw the corner of Levi’s mouth give the slightest twitch. He suddenly realized the strain that he’d felt since Levi had asked for the gun that morning had evaporated. His instincts had evidently decided to trust in Levi.

He huffed out a breath.

“Did you really work on a farm when you were younger?”

Levi looked up, amusement edging out the darker emotion Eren had caught a glimpse of earlier. “You keep coming back to that. Yes.”

Eren nodded.

“Are you planning on doing something that will hurt me, or my family?” He carefully watched Levi’s face.

Levi’s eyes went serious as he met Eren’s gaze squarely.

“No”

“Okay." Eren decided that had been pure truth. "You planning on doing something illegal in the near future?”

Levi looked away and started cleaning up the supplies. “No.”

And that was a lie. Eren nodded to himself, satisfied.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know.”

Levi’s face jerked back up, and Eren was gratified to see the pure shock in his eyes.

“You’re very, very good at not saying things, but as a liar, you suck.” Eren grinned. “I’m glad you aren’t good at _everything_ you do, but that must cause you all sorts of problems.”

Levi shook his head as he stretchef out a hand to brush Eren’s messy hair back from his face. He leaned forward and kissed the younger man.

“You really are remarkable, brat.” Levi’s lips lingered over Eren’s as he spoke.

It was suddenly a lot harder to breath. “Thanks.” 

As Levi pulled away, Eren saw the amusement was back, but his voice was serious. “Are there any other ways in or out?”

Eren shook his head. “There is a back door, but it’s locked and secure. And all the windows on the bottom floor are narrow, and bullet proof.”

Levi glanced over to the slit shaped windows along the base of the front wall. “I noticed the windows were unusual. I figured Hanji had had some reason for it.”

That surprised Eren. “How exactly do you know Hanji?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Levi scowled.

Eren felt the last little bit of his tension ease. That was a very typical reaction from the people who knew Hanji well. The ones she liked, at least.

“I’m going to make sure the barn is secure, lock the door behind me.” He looked back at Eren. “I’ll knock on the window when I come back.”

“Will he go after the animals?” Some of them could handle themselves up close, but not all. And what if he had a gun too?

Bracing himself on the wall, Levi stuck his feet back into his boots. “I don’t think so. He’s a city boy, and he’s a coward. I’m pretty sure he’s never been around anything larger than a dog – I doubt he’d want to get them riled up in any way.”

Did that mean Levi had been living in the city too? How exactly did he know the bear man? Eren filled his cheeks with air, and then let it all blow out.

He’d find it all out later. As he watched Levi bundling himself into his coat, he told himself to wait. He struggled to his feet and walked over to the door on legs that weren’t entirely steady.

As Levi opened the door, he hesitated. “I’ll be back soon.” He studied Eren’s face for a moment before turning and walking out the door.

The expression on his face stuck in Eren’s mind, but it wasn’t until after he’d locked the door and stepped over to one of the windows to watch Levi’s back as the man walked through the darkening gloom towards the barn that he realized that Levi might be half expecting Eren to not let him back in.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Secret Santa thing I have to finish in the next week (it's korrasami and full of fluff, so I'm excited and also in way over my head), so it may not be till the weekend after that that I post the next chapter of SAS. Unless I somehow manage to find a bunch of extra hours somewhere (which I will try to do).


	13. Firelight Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Eren finally has some of the answers, he's ready to deal with his relationship with Levi. But Levi seems to have other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back :)
> 
> It was a much longer hiatus than I'd intended, but I should be back to weekly updates again - work and college permitting.
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter may be a little rough, as it's been so long since I wrote, but it's now 6am and I have to be at work in three hours. I figured you'd all prefer something rather than waiting? I hope anyways.

 

The last traces of daylight had disappeared as the frigid wind ushered in a fresh onslaught from the snow-heavy storm clouds, and the temperature had dropped far enough that not even the thick walls could keep the chill out of the air inside the house.

The fire made an isolated pool of light and heat in the darkness of the cavernous main room, but no matter how tightly Eren wrapped himself in the blankets Levi had piled over him he couldn’t quite seem to get warm.

He sat huddled on one side of the couch he’d pulled in close to the fireplace and thumbed through his phone. There was nothing surprising, just many, many messages from Mikasa continuing her list of incidents from all over the state.

Eren had sent her, Armin, and Hanji a text describing the guy who’d attacked him, but he could still see it waiting to go out. He was pretty sure Mikasa, at least, would be in some sort of vehicle heading his way within minutes once she got it, but he hoped he had until daylight at least.

He heard Levi’s soft footsteps heading towards the fireplace, and glanced over the back of the couch. The scowl was back, and as Levi moved to sit in the recliner – the farthest possible seat from Eren that didn’t have him on the other side of the room – he couldn’t help noticing that the man didn’t meet his eyes. Again.

At first he’d thought he was imagining it, or that Levi was just focused on the danger of the situation. 

But when Levi had returned to the barn earlier, he’d found the buried snowmobile gone, with the tracks heading back down the main road around the lake as far as he could see without leaving the property. With the returning storm lowering visibility to near nothing, it looked like they were ok for the moment.

Since then, Eren had gradually realized that Levi had backed off. Apart from the kiss that afternoon, there had been no sign that they were anything more than two acquaintances sharing a house.

He hadn’t noticed how accustomed he’d become to brushing against Levi until he’d leaned past him to pull out the plates for dinner and Levi suddenly hadn’t been there. After that, he’d noticed that every time he moved anywhere near the man he would smoothly shift away.

Eren didn’t like it. It wasn’t just the physical, it was like all the little glimpses of character that he had thought he’d been starting to see weren’t showing up anymore.

If this was high school, Eren would have thought he was about to get dumped.

Sitting up straight, he determinedly kept his voice light as he continued where he’d left off before Levi had gone off on his latest round of checking all the entrances.

“You ready for more?”

“Is this really necessary?”

“Mikasa will want to know I checked.” Which was bull, of course.

Levi sighed. ”Fine.”

“Okay, there are some good ones here. Two men held up a convenience store on the corner of Washtenaw and Main. That you?”

“No.”

“All right. A hit and run near West Greenhaven, pale blue Chevy Impala.”

“No.”

“Okay.” Eren opened the next text message. “Another ATM mugging, this one at a Barclays, in Grantham.”

“No.”

“Some guy drove his car into a house on the east side of Trost. Oh yeah.” Eren pulled a hand out from under the blankets to wave it in the air. “Ignore that one. I remember hearing about it, the guy ran into his ex’s new boyfriend’s place. Mikasa really scraped the barrel for some of these.”

“Are we nearly done?”  

“Nope. Not even halfway through.”

Levi dropped his head back against the seat cushion and exhaled loudly.

Eren bit his lip as he glanced over. He felt a little guilty – he’d originally started this over dinner when he’d found the silence unbearable. There really was no point to it. Mikasa wouldn’t care if Levi said he’d been an angel his whole life, and had twenty other people swear to it. She’d assume he was a threat until proven otherwise, to her own satisfaction.

But at least this way Levi was talking to him. Sort of.

Looking back at his phone, Eren forced himself to focus on the words as he hunched deeper into the blankets. “Next, we have- looks like property damage to a couple storefronts on Main Street. I think that was a couple weeks ago.”

“Enough. This is stupid. Go to bed, Eren.”

Eren’s eyes shot up to meet Levi’s.  The man was finally looking at him, but his expression was unreadable.

And he’d called him Eren, he’d never done that before – it didn’t feel like a good thing.

Eren felt the frustration swell up unbearably in his chest, and was on his feet and standing in front of the other man before he realized what he was doing. Levi blinked up at him.

“Are you telling me to go because you want me to go, or is this you pushing me away because of what happened this afternoon.” Eren pressed his bandaged hands to his side as he watched Levi closely. He’d dropped the blankets behind him, and he did his best to hold in the shivers that ran through his body.

“Because if you’re being noble, or some stupid shit like that, stop it.” His voice was as strong as he could make it. He hadn’t planned on doing this, of course, but now that he’d started he figured he might as well keep going. He took another step forward, until their legs were very nearly touching.

Levi was silent, just an instant too long.

Swallowing, Eren found he couldn’t keep meeting the sharp blue eyes that stared back at him impassively. He looked away. “Or… I guess you could just really want me to go to bed.” He started easing towards the staircase.

He heard Levi sigh an instant before a hand grabbed at his arm and yanked him forward. Off balance, he landed awkwardly, one knee on the seat beside Levi with his hands braced on either side of the man’s head.

In this position he was looking down at Levi’s half lit face, in the shadow cast by his own body.  

“I was trying to be noble, you idiotic brat.”

Eren felt the tension in his shoulders ease as he realized he could finally see some emotion in Levi’s eyes again. He thought it might be amusement. Maybe even affection.

“Oh, okay. I don’t want you to.”

Levi let his head fall back, even as his arm tightened behind Eren’s waist. “You really have no common sense.“ One corner of his mouth twitched up. “You know, once we deal with this specific asshole, there could very well be others where he came from.”

“What, is he mafia or something?” 

Levi gave one of his slight laughs. “Something.” He shook his head and the amusement faded from his face. “I’m saying there will be other times I’ll piss someone off.” Sliding his arm from around Eren’s back, he tugged one of the younger man’s hands free. Eren shifted his weight but didn’t pull away as he watched Levi’s fingers trace along the white wrappings. “If you're around, you’ll have to deal with shit like this again.”   

Biting his lip, Eren raised his eyes to Levi’s downturned face. Levi’s expression was contemplative, and something about it made Eren’s heart clench.  

Deliberately, Eren huffed. He pulled his hand free. “Geez. I can handle myself, you know.” He raised his arm and pulled back his sleeve as he flexed his bicep, ignoring the pain in his knuckles. “See?” He smiled at Levi, relieved to see the shadowy emotion was gone. “Everybody says I’m ridiculously strong, you know.”

“Is that right.” Levi poked at the muscle. “Amazing.”

“Yeah. I got away from that guy, after all. And- oh right.” Eren grinned happily as he dropped his arm. “I forgot. I hurt him too.”

Levi raised a brow. “You did?”

“I bit his hand. It was through the glove, but I think I broke something. And I think I might have tasted blood.” He beamed at Levi as he watched the man’s eyes widen.

“You broke his hand. With your teeth.”

Eren nodded, and felt a wave of happiness spread through him as heard Levi give another of his rare laughs. Following instinct, he lifted the leg he still had braced on the floor until he could fully straddle Levi’s lap.

“Do you really have so little sense of self-preservation?” The amusement lingered on Levi’s face as he leaned his head back.

Eren wasn’t sure if Levi was referring to their current position, the attack, or their relationship in general. It didn’t really make a difference.

“My sister says I have none.” Pressing a hand to Levi’s chest, Eren leaned in. He felt the warmth of Levi’s mouth as it opened beneath his.

“She’s right.” Levi murmured, and bit at Eren’s lower lip.

Eren felt hands bunching up his sweater as they slid up his torso. He pulled away, meeting Levi’s focused gaze as Eren took over, yanking the sweater over his head and throwing it over the back of the couch.

His bare skin prickled in the cool air, but he wasn’t cold anymore. He could feel the heat of the fire against his back, and he pressed himself as close as he could to Levi’s warmth as he wound an arm behind Levi’s neck and lowered his mouth again.

He felt Levi’s thumbs tracing up the seam of his jeans between his spread thighs, and his breath stuttered as he felt them travel up along the crease on either side of his groin.

By the time the hands eased around and tightly gripped his butt, he had to raise his head so he could get in any air at all. Levi eyes were fixed on his face as his palms slid down, and then squeezed, pushing his fingers up between the cheeks of Eren’s ass.

Eren’s hips rose and his back arched as he felt Levi pressing in through the layers of cloth. The pressure didn’t let up, Levi kept squeezing and pressing, again and again, and Eren felt his jeans grow uncomfortably tight.

Levi pushed in, harder, and Eren moaned as his head fell back. If he hadn’t been so far gone, he might have been embarrassed by how easily Levi could get him to this state.

But he refused to be the only one.

He pulled away, standing on shaky legs as Levi looked questioningly up at him. Drawing in a deep breath, he stripped off the rest of his clothes. He didn’t bother going for anything more advanced than simply not falling over, but when he was finally naked and forced himself to stand straight and meet Levi’s gaze, he was pleased to see the flush riding high on the pale cheeks.

“You know, in all the excitement, we forgot to go over one thing.” Levi shifted in the chair, spreading his legs apart slightly as his hands started working down the line of buttons on his shirt.

Eren’s eyes dropped to the bulge between Levi’s thighs. “Ah, one thing. Okay.”

 “I don’t let go of things easily, once they’re mine.”

Eren blinked and managed to lift his eyes to meet Levi’s. “Do you mean that when this is all over, you’re still going to stick around for a while?”

Levi scowled as his hands paused on the last button. “What the shit else did you think I was planning on doing? I’m talking a little beyond that here.”

“Oh, okay. Works for me.” Eren shrugged his bare shoulders. He knew he’d be happy about that later, but right now he was standing buck naked in the middle of the room, and all he wanted was Levi to join him.

Levi’s hands still didn’t move, and Eren had to force himself to not step forward and take over. “That simple. You still know fuck-all about me.”

“Well, I like you.” Eren found himself swallowing beneath Levi’s intense stare.

Levi blew out a long breath. Shaking his head, he stood, and tugged off his shirt. As he started to undo his fly, he nodded towards the front door. “Go get the stuff from my coat pocket.”

“What?” Eren tore his eyes from where they’d gotten stuck on Levi’s bare chest.

Levi just raised his brow, and Eren turned on his heel and padded across the room. Away from the fire, he felt the cold spread over his whole body, but when he reached the coat rack and stuck his hand in the pocket, he flushed as he realized what he was touching.

By the time he walked back into the circle of light by the fireplace, Levi was naked, and had draped one of the blankets over the side of the couch Eren had been sitting on.

“Did you find it?”

Wordlessly, Eren held out the familiar brown packet of lubricant and a handful of condoms.

Levi stepped forward and took Eren’s wrist, pulling him forward until he could wrap an arm around Eren’s neck and pull his head down low enough to slant his mouth over Eren’s. The hand at his wrist stroked up and down over the goosebumps on his skin.

“Sure?” Levi murmured.

Eren nodded

Pulling away, Levi took the lube and condoms before guiding Eren to kneel on the blanket covered floor, facing the couch.

Clenching his hands in the blanket over the seat, Eren swallowed as Levi kneeled behind him and slid his legs forward, pushing Eren’s knees farther apart until he was sitting on Levi’s thighs. Eren’s breath caught in his throat as one hand slid down his stomach to wrap around his erection.  

He gasped as Levi’s palm started stroking over him, and Levi took the opportunity to lift his other arm and slip two fingers into Eren’s mouth.

The younger man sucked at them enthusiastically as they slid in and out, not quite following the same rhythm as his hips as they tried to move in time with Levi’s other hand

When Levi pulled his hands away and slid his fingers out of Eren’s mouth, he let his arms give out and slumped forward to rest against the couch. Shivers travelled up his spine as he felt Levi slide a hand down along the line of his ass until he could slip a wet finger inside.

Eren whimpered as he felt a second finger slip past the tight ring of nerves. It felt better than the night before already, and he found himself pushing back against Levi, wanting more.

Levi’s hands pulled away, and Eren heard a packet open. Seconds later, he felt slick fingers slip back in, moving deep inside as they scissored gently, stretching him out.

They pulled away, and he felt Levi spread the cheeks of his ass apart as his dick nudged at Eren’s entrance, pushing inside. He moved slowly, so slowly as he eased all the way in.

Eren’s chest was heaving and he could hear himself moan. He felt Levi’s arms come around his chest, and he pulled Eren back until he sat upright on Levi’s thighs. One arm wrapped tightly across his torso, the other up under his arm to pull at his shoulder. He could feel Levi’s forehead resting between his shoulder blades as he started moving.

Shutting his eyes so all he could see was the glow of the fire against his eyelids, Eren felt like he was burning up as he rocked his hips back into Levi’s thrusts.

Dropping his hands to the thighs between his legs, Eren dug his nails in and let his head drop forward, his whole body held up only by Levi’s arms. Levi changed his angle slightly and stroked over the spot deep inside Eren. He was so close that all it took was the once. Eren's hips jerked and he cried out.  

Levi kept thrusting through Eren’s climax, the wet slap of flesh hitting flesh getting louder and faster until he tightened his arms and pressed himself deep inside as he came.

The grip on Eren's chest loosened and Levi pulled out, sending a last shudder through both of them. Gently, he shifted Eren forward enough that he could rest against the couch as Levi moved away.

Turning his head, Eren watched as Levi walked over to the trash. He couldn’t understand it. He was so tired he couldn’t have moved, even if he’d wanted to.

“How do you have that much strength back already?” Eren scowled, looking up at Levi as he walked back towards him. “Don’t say practice.”

Levi's lip twitched. “I won’t.” He tilted his head. “And you really do need to go up to bed now.”

His sweat was cooling fast, and Eren knew he’d start shivering soon. But he most definitely didn’t have the energy to stand up yet. “I don’t think I can.”

Levi crouched down. “My fault. I’ll carry you.”

Eren started to laugh, but it turned to a yelp as he felt himself being scooped up into Levi’s arms. His eyes went wide, but he draped and arm around Levi’s neck. Come to think of it, Levi had carried him in that afternoon, so he didn’t know why he was so surprised now.

He decided to relax and enjoy it, for the moment, and was already asleep by the time Levi was halfway up the stairs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm too tired to proofread this more right now, so I VERY MUCH apologize for any typos/nonsensical parts. I hope you enjoyed it anyways!


	14. Chaos Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The calm before the (next) storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so if you follow my tumblr you maybe/might possibly have seen/most likely didn't see that I took a little hiatus to get some other ideas out of my system and to work on more tightly structuring the plot for the tail end of this story. Which we are now heading towards.
> 
>  
> 
> So now that's all done and here is a ridiculously short and fluffy chapter to kick the next bit off :)

“Time to wake up, brat.”

Grumbling sleepily, Eren burrowed his head deeper into the pillows. “Wanna sleep.”

“No. Get up.” Levi’s voice sounded odd, and Eren eased his eyes open a slit. Something was wrong.

He felt the blankets shifting as Levi tugged them away, shivering at the cold air washing over him. “Yesterday you told me to stay in bed.”

“That was yesterday. Up. Now.”  Eren frowned at the tone of Levi’s voice. If he didn’t know better, he would have said Levi actually sounded enthusiastic.

Eren blinked up at Levi. His eyes were shining. He _was_ excited. And his hair was wet.

“Power’s on. Go have a shower.”

“What?” Eren struggled to sit up, glancing around the room. All the lights he’d turned on before the electricity went were working again, which was good seeing as it was still completely dark outside.

He must have taken too long to process everything because a second later the room started revolving as Levi picked him up and carried him into the bathroom, setting him on his feet by the shower. Still not fully awake, Eren obediently stepped into the bathtub at the hand gently prodding the small of his back, and watched as Levi twisted the taps.

The freezing blast of water woke him up, fast. He yelped, ducking away. “What the hell!” The shorts and tee he was wearing were soaked. He stared wide eyed at Levi as the man adjusted the knobs. “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything.” Levi eyed Eren as he stood huddled against the back wall of the shower, trying to keep away from the glacial stream. His lip twitched. “You just smell like you haven’t had a decent bath in days.”

“Well, yeah.” The water splashing against Eren’s legs went lukewarm for a split second before shooting up to scorching, and staying there.  

“So wash everything. Get clean.”

Eren flinched as a stray stream burned into a fresh patch of skin on his thighs. “Okay, okay, I’ll clean up. Just please turn the temperature down.”  

Levi cocked his head to the side, smirking. “I don’t know, I’d say the dirt might be ingrained into your skin. Maybe you need some help getting started.”  Eren’s jaw dropped as Levi stepped into the tub, fully dressed. He tugged Eren forward, cupping the back of his head to bring it down to meet his.

The burning heat of the water pouring over his shoulders hurt, but the sensation was lost as all Eren could concentrate on was Levi’s tongue as it twisted with his, and the roughness of Levi’s wet shirt against his skin as he wrapped his arms tightly around the man, pulling him in tight. 

By the time Levi pulled his mouth away, Eren had forgotten all about anything to do with the water.

Levi’s lips curved in a smile that Eren had never seen before.  His black hair was soaked, dripping down into his face, and the perpetual frown was missing.

The hand at the back of Eren’s neck slid around to stroke across his cheek. Shifting up to his toes, Levi brushed their mouths together in a delicate kiss that made Eren’s breath stutter. “We don’t have time for more today. Next time.” He patted Eren’s cheek and moved away, stepping out of the tub. “I’ll make breakfast. You handle your smell.”

Eren grinned to himself as he watched Levi squelch away. And then he scrubbed his hands over his face, turned the water down to an acceptable level, and proceeded to get absolutely, completely clean.

He had a feeling he’d be taking showers a lot more seriously from now on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so short, I'm so sorry. But we are now back to the regular updates, so you should get the next chapter next weekend. Most likely.


	15. Chaos Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Levi prepare for whatever may be coming. (vague, yes, sorry)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to keep working more and polishing more on this chapter, but I must sleep, unfortunately. I hope you like it anyways :)
> 
> Also, I apologize in advance for... you'll see.

Eren stepped into the kitchen, scrubbing his hands through his still damp hair, and found Levi standing in front of the stove. He sniffed the air. It smelled like bacon.

On a jaw popping yawn, Eren headed to the sink. Washing his hands as soon as he walked in had become routine, but the warm water coming out of the tap was a welcome change. He glanced at the clock. It was only just past five. “Was there a particular reason to be up this early?”

“Yes.” Levi didn’t bother to look up.

Eren sighed, but leaned up to pull two plates out of the cabinet. He’d wait until they were at the table, it would be easier to read Levi’s face. The man liked keeping secrets.

Rattling through the silverware drawer, he wondered if Levi realized what the electricity coming back on meant. Soon the roads would be clear, and unless Levi planned on taking off, he was going to have to start being a little more forthcoming.  It wasn’t like he’d have a choice, once Armin, Mikasa, and Hanji got here – nobody kept secrets from those three, unless they decided they didn’t want to know.

If Levi really knew Hanji at all, he’d know that.

There was no point in worrying, Eren would have to wait and see what happened. For now he was planning on enjoying the time left with just the two of them. Plus one very unfriendly stranger.

“So did the guy come back?” Forgetting he’d planned to save the questions till later, Eren leaned against the counter next to the stove.

“Not unless he walked back, and there are no new tracks. It stopped snowing.”  Levi elbowed Eren aside, grabbing one of the serving spoons from the rack behind him. He headed to the table and started scooping food onto the plates. “It looks like that snowmobile had been sitting there for several days. He must have been hiding somewhere in the barn. Unless you have any other buildings nearby?”

“No, we don’t actually work too much of the land, so all our equipment fits in the one barn.” Eren grabbed the toast as it popped up, juggling the pieces from hand to hand as they burned his fingertips. “There’s the garage. Or the boat shed, but that’s padlocked. Neither is heated so anyone trying to hide out would freeze.”

“I’ll check them both. Sit”

Dropping the toast onto the plates, Eren managed to wait until Levi sat down across from him before he started stuffing his mouth. If anyone else had tried to make him eat eggs with little green flecks all over them he’d have laughed in their face and grabbed a box of pop tarts instead. But he was planning on eating whatever Levi set in front of him. He doubted he’d ever regret it.

It wasn’t like he’d never had eggs and bacon before. He liked eggs and bacon. But this was beyond anything he’d ever tried. He closed his eyes, savoring the tastes on his tongue. When he opened them, he found Levi leaning back in his chair, watching him, with that half smile on his face. Eren flushed.

“Is watching me eat really that entertaining?”

Levi’s smile deepened. “Yes. I like watching you eat what I’ve made.” He raised his mug to his lips and took a slow sip as Eren fought to keep from squirming on the suddenly uncomfortable chair. “It's almost like the expression you make when I take off my shirt.”

Eren's fork slipped from his fingers as his wide eyes shot to Levi’s face.

The narrow mouth quirked. “Maybe not quite the same.” Setting his mug down, he sat forward to start on his own, smaller portion. When Eren didn’t move, he gestured with his fork. “Eat. We have a lot to do this morning.”

 

______

 

They left the house by the back door.  Eren did his best to mimic Levi’s nearly soundless movements as they trudged through the snow, following tracks Levi must have made during his rounds overnight. Eren had a feeling the man hadn’t slept much, if at all. He'd certainly cleaned up their remnants from the living room.

The cloudless sky was only just shifting from black to blue, but the faint light reflecting off the snow lit everything around them clearly enough that it might as well have been day. Nothing was moving, the wind had died, and it was too early for the birds to start up.

It wasn’t until he felt the cold spearing into his lungs that Eren realized he'd started having trouble breathing.

“Let me know if you need to go back to the house.” Levi’s voice was low, calm. He didn’t turn around. It took Eren a second to realize why Levi seemed to almost expect that he’d be feeling the first edges of panic.

This was the first time Eren had left the house since he’d been locked into that dark little room in the barn.

“I’m fine.” He forced himself to focus all his attention on the broad shoulders moving steadily in front of him, taking one step at a time and letting his breathing follow the same rhythm as the puffs of air he could see fogging in front of Levi’s face.

“Don’t be stupid. If you need to go back say it.” But Levi didn’t stop, and Eren said nothing.

He absolutely refused to give in to this feeling, not as long as he could stand it. It helped that he could feel his knife through his thick socks, tucked into his boot. He could see Levi scanning the area around them, on high alert. But he was intensely glad when they were finally stomping the snow off their boots inside the barn. Everything seemed calm, none of the animals gave any sign that there might be somebody hiding in one of the shadows.

And that was when he finally remembered. “That must have been him. In the attic.”

Levi’s hands froze, the zipper of his coat halfway down. “The attic.”

“Yeah, when I went to get Armin’s clothes for you. I thought I saw something moving, but I couldn’t see anything when I got closer, so I figured it was just a rat.” He felt like shuffling his feet at the long look Levi gave him.

“You have such a talent for-” Sighing, Levi finished stripping off his coat. “Show me.”

He said nothing else as Eren led him up the series of ladders to the top of the barn, and into the cavernous attic. It wasn’t until they found the obvious signs that someone had been staying there that he spoke again. Scowling down at the old mattress that had been set up in one of the back corners, piled high with blankets and surrounded by wrappers and empty soup cans, Levi shook his head.   

“So you see something moving where there shouldn’t be anything moving, and you just head straight towards it.” Levi glared up at Eren. “How the hell are you not dead yet?”

“I just- I didn’t think there was anything to worry about.”

Levi’s lips tightened at that. His scowl eased, but his eyes were still intent on Eren. “Idiot. You need to be more cautious. Don’t go anywhere without me until I’ve trained you better.” He huffed out a long breath, and walked over to the thin line of windows at one end of the room.

“Are there any neighbors nearby?”

The tension eased from Eren’s shoulders as he followed Levi. “The army base, but we’ve got a good fifteen miles of forest between here and their closest building. The Breachmont’s place is closer, it’s about a quarter of the way round the lake.” Eren hesitated, eying Levi’s back. “I’m guessing that snowmobile came from there. Big wood beam house, attached garage leading down to a boat dock?”

Levi nodded, still looking out the window. “We passed it.”

“When you were with him.” Eren didn’t take his eyes off the man silhouetted against the lightening sky.

“Yes. We’d passed it when James-“ Hesitating, and then turning to meet Eren’s eyes directly, Levi continued. “When James got a little worked up. He tried to run my side of the truck into a tree but he ended up losing control and we flipped. I got out to see how far we were from the house, couldn’t see a fucking thing. I kept walking, figured I’d find a phone and call for backup. I must have walked into the water, all I remember after that is walking towards a light, and then waking up on your floor.”

Eren’s jaw dropped. He stared at Levi. “You’re telling me stuff? Really?”

The corner of Levi’s mouth crooked up. “I’d hoped he’d died, and I’d go back and find his body once the storm was over, but I couldn’t be sure. I should have warned you to be careful. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay. As long as you tell me absolutely everything.” Eren grinned at the look of actual discomfort that flashed across Levi’s face. “When we have more time.”

Levi’s eyebrow shot up at the amusement on Eren’s face. “Brat.” He stepped past Eren, leading the way back down to the main floor. “Then let's get this over with.”

They worked in comfortable silence, feeding all the stabled animals and making sure they would be fine for the rest of the day. Even doing just the minimum, it was several hours later before they stepped out and headed down the ramp to the lower level.

It was frigidly cold, but with the morning sun shining across the snow it seemed warmer. The panic that Eren had felt walking from the house that morning was down to just a tickle at the back of his neck.

So he was just starting to feel as if they had the upper hand when he heard a sound ring out, a familiar crack, echoing. It took him a split second to add the noise to the way Levi's body jerked back in front of him. Someone was shooting at them. 

_Levi had been shot._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO sorry. This was where it needed to end for this bit (the whole segment doesn't flow if I end before it, and I've run out of time to write beyond it for this week) and I wanted to warn you but that would totally have ruined it. 
> 
> But next chapter next weekend, promise!


	16. Chaos Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is injured, and the gunman is still out there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger over. I promise to only do stuff like that again when it's super necessary. I swear.
> 
> Thanks bunches and bunches to the awesome arukitty for helping me out when I was researching guns and wounds and stuff (the pictures were getting a little too gory for me). Any mistakes are most definitely all mine though.
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the chapter :)

Eren had barely realized what was happening before Levi stumbled back into him, knocking him to the ground. They landed awkwardly at the edge of the barn’s ramp, Eren scrabbling at the snow covered ground to keep them from falling off the side. He’d nearly brought them to a stop when he realized Levi had fisted a hand in Eren’s sleeve and was deliberately pulling them over the edge.

They fell, rolling in a flurry of limbs as Eren struggled to follow Levi’s lead without landing on top of him. Slipping down off the concrete ramp to the ground, and then further, down the bank to the gully that ran along one side of the bottom level of the stables.

With a soft thud, Eren landed on his back in the piled up snow. Instantly, Levi was up, gun out, as he looked up along the bank towards the lake.

“You’re hit, Levi, how badly are you hit.” Eren struggled to his knees, his hands skimming over Levi’s coat. There was a hole, barely visible against the black, right around Levi’s stomach. Eren’s heart sank.  He shifted around to feel at Levi’s back. The coat was soaking wet. His fingers found the ragged edges of torn fabric and then Levi was pushing him away.

“Leave it.” Urging Eren up to his feet, Levi turned him around and shoved at Eren’s shoulder.

Eren stumbled forward, staring down at the deep red blood coating his hand.  “Levi-“

“Get inside, bar the doors.”

“What?” Eren dug in his heels. “No, you’re hurt. You’re bleeding.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Ducking away from Levi’s insistent hand, Eren swung back, grabbed at Levi’s shoulders. Blue eyes were calm as they met his glare. His fingers tightened. “I’m not gonna just run and hide. There’s no way I’d leave you alone out here.”

“And what will you do, apart from get shot?” The corner of Levi’s mouth flicked up. Eren couldn’t help thinking he was getting very pale. His arms came up and spread, dislodging Eren’s grip. “I’ll have a better chance of getting up there and close enough to hit him if I don’t have to worry about you.”

“Then we’ll hide in the barn, wait him out.”

“Those doors won’t keep him out, not with a gun. He’ll come looking for me. I’m going to get this over with.”  Levi reached up, swiped a thumb across Eren’s cheek. “Get inside, stay safe. I’ll come find you.”

Eren fisted his hands at his sides uselessly. “Be careful.”

“Go, brat.”

Nodding, Eren stepped back, his breath catching in his throat as he watched Levi turn and climb back up the slope, slipping over the edge and away from view.  

All he could do was stand and stare at the smears of blood Levi had left on the snow. Another gunshot rang out, and he flinched.

He heard nothing else, nothing to tell him if Levi was still okay. And he couldn’t do anything.

When he heard the gun go off a third time, he jolted into action. The bear man – James, he corrected himself – didn’t seem to be worried about saving bullets. Eren didn’t have a gun, couldn’t have hit anything even if he had one, but he refused to sit quietly. If nothing else he could try and distract the gunman.

The trick was doing it without distracting Levi, or getting hit.

The shots were coming from the direction of the lake. The bank above him slanted down once it got past the barn, gradually sloping until it came even with the lower ground, just before it hit the road leading back around the lake. Moving as quietly as he could in the snow, Eren walked down its length. When he’d have had to drop to a crawl to stay hidden, he stopped and pressed himself against the bank, easing up until he had a clear view of the clearing and the trees leading down from the house.

Nothing moved. There was no sign of anyone. He forced himself to keep absolutely still, telling himself waving his coat in the air wouldn’t really be of too much help in the long run. He was very nearly ready to do it anyway when he saw something shift.

Near the water line, tucked behind a lip in the ground and a small copse of young trees, Eren could just make out the line of someone’s shoulder. Shifting slowly, he moved further up until he could clearly see the side of the man’s head. He was lying on the ground, and it looked like he had his eye to the scope of a rifle propped up in front of him. From this distance and with only the brief glimpse he'd had the day before, he couldn't be sure, but he thought it must be the same man. 

Ducking back down, Eren studied the forest on the other side of the road. He’d planned to find some way of making the gunman think Levi was somewhere in this direction, but he had a better idea.

It’d be better if it worked, anyway.

He stripped off his bright blue coat, glanced down at his red sweater, and decided it was dark enough to work. Dropping to the ground, he crawled forward through the snow.  When the last of the bank was all but gone, he lifted his head.

There was no sign of the man. The trees jutted out just far enough that Eren couldn’t quite see the little copse where he'd seen the figure. He pulled his knife from his boot, gripping it tightly.

With excruciating slowness, Eren rose to a crouch. Everything was silent. All he could hear was the harshness of his breath. Inhaling deeply, he started moving. Creeping across the road, he kept his eyes fixed, looking for any sign of motion.

His heart thudded to a stop when he heard the gun go off again. He desperately hoped Levi was still okay, but he had no way to know.

Reaching the thin line of trees, Eren kept his distance, walking at an angle towards the lake, catching a glimpse of the man every few steps - a flash of his black cap, his camouflage jacket, the line of his rifle – but he never looked up, all his attention focused through the scope of his gun.

He’d just reached the frozen edge of the lake when another gunshot rang out. He sped up, following the line of the lake until he was directly behind the gunman.

There was nothing between them now but air. Holding his breath, Eren shifted his grip on the knife and slowly crept forward.

Every step took an eternity. He was still a good five yards away when James lifted his head and started turning back towards him.

Eren launched himself forward, slamming his elbow down into the center of the man’s back with all his weight as he landed. James grunted and fell back flat on the ground. Scrambling up, wrapping an arm around the thick neck, Eren twisted his hand so he could jab the knife into soft skin. “Don’t move.” He dug his knees in and yanked the man's head back as far as he could. 

The body beneath him started to buck, and Eren let the knife slide a little further in. When James reached up to try and pry him away, Eren grabbed the hand he'd bitten and squeezed until the man cried out.

“I told you not to move.” He kept squeezing, a little harder than he needed to for a warning. He felt something grinding through the man's glove

“Who the fuck are you?” James held himself absolutely still.

“Doesn’t matter.” Eren leaned in close to his ear. “The only thing you need to know is that I have a knife to your throat, and I have no good reason to keep you alive. So don’t move.”

When it looked like he was going to listen, Eren raised his head and called out, “It’s okay Levi, I have him.” There was silence. Keeping his grip tight, Eren looked up towards the house. “Levi?” Maybe he’d collapsed, or been hit again. Eren pushed the knife in another fraction of an inch.

He heard a rustle and looked over. Levi was walking out from the trees on the other side of the clearing, his face was pasty, and he wasn't walking fully upright, but he was okay.

“You overgrown little shit, I told you to stay in the barn.”

Eren grinned up at Levi, almost giddy at the sight of him alive and walking. “I thought of something I could do apart from getting shot.”

“Idiot. We’ll deal with that later.” Levi pointed his gun at the man. “Get off, brat. I’ve got him.”

As Eren pulled away, the man lunged for his gun, and screamed as Levi shot through his good hand.

Levi glanced at Eren as he kicked the rifle away. “Do you have a place to keep him?”

Eren nodded. “In the basement.”

“Alright. Check and see if there’s anything to tie him up with in his bag, and we’ll keep him there.”

Blinking, Eren glanced around and saw a large duffel bag off to one side. He pawed through it. It was full of ammo, some clothes, and lengths of bright orange rope. Eren had no idea why James would have packed rope, or why Levi would have thought he might have some, but he knew he’d be asking later.

They only tied his feet, in the end, loose enough that he could still walk.  The man wouldn’t stop whimpering as he clutched at his hand. Eren prodded him to his feet, grabbing the rifle so he could jab it in the man’s back. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t miss at this range, and he wanted the man put away fast so he could take a good look at how bad Levi's wound was.

“Start walking.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have my two final assignments due for college after next weekend, so next chapter may be short or delayed to the following weekend. Maybe. I may just skimp on the homework and write anyways, we'll see.


	17. Chaos Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is wounded, and all Eren wants to do is find out how bad it is. They have something they need to take care of first though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College is all over with (till September), and apart from work (always getting in the way) we're fast coming to the end of the story. Not quite there yet though.

 

The creep was a good head taller than Eren, and massively built, though it was hard to tell how much of that was muscle. There was no grey in the thick brown beard covering the bottom half of his face, but Eren couldn’t get a good enough look at his features to guess his age. Whimpering as he hunched over his hand and with his ankles hobbled he didn’t look like all that much of a threat, though from the interesting assortment of weapons and tools Eren had seen in the duffel bag currently slung over his shoulder, he was pretty sure he shouldn’t underestimate the guy.

As they made their way back to the house, Eren realized Levi wasn’t keeping up. He prodded at James’ back, trying to hurry him along. Levi had said he was a coward, so maybe the blubbering was real, but Eren still didn’t dare take his eyes off the man long enough to get a good look at Levi behind him.

No matter how strong he was, he’d been shot. His footsteps sounded steady, but his face had been grey. He’d stood back with his gun trained on James as Eren had tied him up – it had made tactical sense to Eren so he hadn’t worried about it at the time, but now the need to find out exactly how hurt Levi was was quickly becoming all he could think about.

He didn’t have time to worry about finding a nice way of getting one very large, possibly dangerous asshole locked up in his basement.

So as they stepped up onto the porch Eren dropped the bag and kicked at the back of James’ legs, knocking him to his knees facing the wall. Ignoring the man’s loud howl when he instinctively tried to catch himself and landed with all his weight against his hands, Eren pressed in close. Deliberately angling his body so James wouldn’t be able to get a decent look at Levi – in case he hadn’t yet realized he was wounded - he grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked the man’s head back.

Tracing the knife up the side of James’ face, he let it dig into the skin beside his eye until a thick drop of blood trailed down the blade.

The howl cut off suddenly, and for a moment the only sound was heavy breathing. “Who are you, kid?”

“I want you to stay right here.”

“You working with that guy?” James started to turn his head back.

“I think you need to be quiet and concentrate on staying still.” Eren dragged the knife a little further over, deeper, drawing a line in red towards the man's eye.

“Shit.” James muttered, and then clamped his mouth shut. 

Hoping the silence meant the man wouldn’t try anything, Eren backed away carefully.

Finally, he let himself take a good, if brief, look at Levi. He’d stepped up onto the porch, and was watching Eren, an unreadable expression on his face as he kept the gun trained on James. His skin looked pale, but otherwise the thick black coat hid whatever damage the bullet had done.

“I’m going to unlock the basement.”

Levi nodded, slowly. “Should we swap?”

It took Eren a moment, and then he shook his head. “No, I’m fine.”

Sending one last glance at the man still kneeling against the wall, Eren made his way inside, propping the doors open behind him.

The house basement was the opposite of small and enclosed. As he keyed in the code and pushed open the door, two long lines of lights clicked on, shining off of grey marble floors and the dark windows lining the wide hallway.

This was the only part of his father’s extensive basements still in use. Hanji had merged a bunch of the old cells to make one massive computer lab – flashes of blue, red, white and green lights formed steady patterns in the darkness behind the huge panes of glass that filled the left side of the hall.

The three cells Hanji had decided to keep intact were to his right. Their windows were smaller and threaded through with woven metal.  They mostly used them as temporary pens for Hanji’s pets.

He unlocked the first cell before heading back up the recessed stairway, slowing as he passed the kitchen. As much as he didn’t care, there was a second gunshot wound he’d likely have to do something about, at some point, and once he got James locked up in the basement he didn’t want to have to deal with him again.

Grabbing the first aid kit from under the kitchen sink, he pulled out a box of gauze and a bottle of antiseptic, stuffing them into his pockets. They would do.

As he neared the front door, he thought he heard voices, but everything was silent when he stepped back outside. He felt a beat of panic in his chest when his eyes went to where Levi had been, and he wasn’t there. The tension didn’t quite ease when he spotted him leaning back against the porch railing a little further along, the gun still steadily pointed at James, who hadn’t moved.

Levi had gone a paler shade of white, and Eren didn’t think he was imagining the way he was starting to hunch to the side. He saw Eren watching him and crooked an eyebrow. “Ready?”

Eren nodded. He walked to James and kicked at the man’s leg. “Up.”

Slowly, James clambered to his feet. Eren placed himself directly behind the broad back, digging the knife in through his thick coat, and pushed him towards the front door.  James glanced around as they stepped in, but he didn’t make any sudden movements. In fact, his steps actually seemed to slow to a crawl.

Eren gritted his teeth. 

“Look kid, you shouldn’t trust that guy.” James spoke softly, as if trying to keep Levi from overhearing as he followed directly behind them. “He’s lying, whatever he’s told you.”

“Walk faster.”

“You aren’t safe. Don’t believe anything he says, he fools everybody.” James’ feet faltered as he got a good look through the basement door. Eren shoved at his back, and he slowly edged forward. 

“Has he told you how he knows me? What he used to do?”

James’ voice was quickly losing its gentleness. He twisted away from Eren’s knife at the entrance to the cell, backing away.

“Get in the damn cell.” Levi’s voice was far closer than it should have been, and Eren was startled to see he’d come up beside him.

“Levi-“ Eren tried to shift to stand in the way of James’ path to Levi. Levi wasn’t cooperating.  

“He calls you Levi? It that what you’re going by now? Asshole.”  James took a threatening step forward and Eren gave up on shielding Levi, instead throwing all his weight into shoving James towards the open cell door.

James voice was edging up to a shout as he all but ignored the attempt, casually knocking Eren back, all his attention on Levi. “You motherfucker, do you know how many people are going to want you dead when they find out what you are?”

Eren distinctly heard Levi sigh a split second before the sound of a gunshot echoed deafeningly through the hallway.

Clapping his hands over his ears far too late to do any good, Eren watched wide eyed as James staggered backwards into the wall, the hand Eren had bitten into clamped over his upper arm as he swore incoherently at Levi, tears streaming down his face and mixing with the blood stains from the cut by his eye.

“Hey brat, can you hear me?”

“Yeah.” Eren dropped his hands, the buzzing in his ears only mildly unpleasant, as he turned to look at Levi.

“You can put him in the cell now.”

“Oh, right.”

As Eren guided James, the man pushed back, sneering down at Eren. “You’re fucking insane. Why the hell would you give that crazy son of a bitch a gun.”

Without pausing, Eren smiled beautifully up at James as he shoved, and watched him stagger backwards into the room.  James’ eyes widened as he saw Eren start to close the door.

 “You can’t leave me like this. I’m gonna fucking bleed to death.”

Remembering, Eren pulled the medical supplies he’d brought out of his pocket, and threw them into the room. He pulled the door shut as he turned to Levi, ignoring James’ scream as he again reached out instinctively to catch them with his hands. The sound cut off as the door sealed shut with a soft squeak.

He smiled at the black haired man watching him with amusement in his eyes. “Let’s look at that wound of yours.”

Despite the pallor of his skin, Levi’s lips twitched as he angled his chin to the door behind Eren. “I certainly hope that wasn’t an example of your usual bedside manner.”

“Of course not.” Smile fading, Eren stepped forward and pressed a hand to Levi’s cheek. It was cold and far too pale. "You've lost too much blood."

“I’ll be fine.”

“We really need to get to the hospital.” Eren was pretty sure his rudimentary first aid wasn’t going to be enough. But getting Levi anywhere on his bike or a snowmobile was not going to work.

And then, like a hero swooping in, Eren heard the sound of cars driving up outside the house. A grin stretched across his face as he looked down at Levi.

“They’re home!”

Levi sighed, from deep in his chest. “Yes, they’re home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's coming hoooome :)
> 
> I have been looking forward to the next chapter for months. I had hoped to get to it this weekend but that didn't happen - next weekend now!


	18. Daylight Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Levi aren't stranded anymore, but as they watch the others head towards them there are still more than a few things left to worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said something on tumblr last week about how there are two chapters left and I'd post both this week and I totally lied. (unintentionally).
> 
> There were three chapters left, and I'm posting one this week (I was a little/very overly optimistic). 
> 
> But we're nearly there! So many characters in this chapter, I'm sorry if it gets confusing. And I hope you all enjoy it anyways

 

Eren all but bounced out onto the porch, a broad grin on his face. An instant later he stumbled to a stop, the smile fading away as he got his first look at the cars plowing through the snow towards them. A glimpse of the sheriff’s star blazoned on the side of the truck at the front had him stepping back, blocking Levi’s way through the front door.

Hands gripped his arms, and he was gently set to the side. His eyes were wide and anxious as they met Levi’s.

“Stop worrying, brat.”

“But you’re not in any shape to get away-“ Eren cut himself off as Levi’s lips curved. Sliding his hand down Eren’s arm, Levi gripped his wrist and tugged the younger man forward.

When they stood together at the edge of the porch, in plain view of the sheriff’s truck and the two other vehicles following in its trail, Levi shot a glance at Eren - still blinking as he stared down at the fingers wrapped around his wrist. “You’re so convinced I’m about to be arrested. I think I’m offended.”

Eren’s head snapped up. He huffed, instantly indignant. “You’re all mysterious and you won’t tell me _anything_. What else am I supposed to think?”

“And believing that, your first instinct is to have me escape?” Levi kept his eyes on the incoming cars, but Eren saw the corner of his lip twitch even as he slowly shook his head. “I’m never going to be able to sleep through the night again, trying to predict what shit you’ll get your dumb ass into next.”  

Eren felt his cheeks heat. That all sounded remarkably permanent.

It wasn’t until he saw Levi pull himself up that Eren realized he was favoring his side, hunching in on himself.  He shuffled closer, willing Levi his strength for just a little bit longer.

The sheriff’s truck was the first to pull up in front of the house, but Mikasa had already jumped out of the van behind it before Armin had managed to bring it to a full stop. She strode towards Eren and Levi, a deep scowl on her face, and Eren couldn’t help his tiny step backwards. He breathed a sigh of relief when Armin hopped out and darted around the front of the van, his longer legs giving him an advantage in the deep snow. He quickly caught up and looped his arm through hers, slowing her to something approaching a normal pace. 

Keeping half his attention on his siblings, Eren turned to watch Sheriff Smith slowly step down from his truck. His eyes scanned over Levi, lingering on the dark patch on his coat, with its barely visibly hole, before lifting and fixing on Levi’s face.  

Eren swallowed, licking his dry lips.

He wasn’t sure which of them was the bigger threat – a glance at Levi told him he was keeping his attention on the sheriff, but Levi likely didn’t know what Mikasa was capable of – or Armin, for that matter. Eren just had to make sure he did everything possible to make sure their first impression of Levi was a good one.

Sheriff Smith stopped just short of the porch. He smiled up at them. “It’s been too long, Levi.”

“Erwin.”

Eren’s eyes jerked to the sheriff and back to Levi. “Wait, you know each other?”

Ignoring Levi’s scowl, Erwin directed his smile at Eren. “Yes. He works with me.”

“I do not.” Levi snapped.

“Always so stubborn.”

Eren tugged at his wrist, Levi didn’t let go. “You’re a police officer?”

“No.” Levi spoke at the same time as Erwin nodded.

“Technically he works for the DLA.”

“Erwin, shut the fuck up.”

The sheriff raised one thick eyebrow as his smile widened, and even with his head whirling in confusion Eren had the sudden impression Erwin was actually winding Levi up on purpose.

His thoughts were a mess. Levi and the sheriff knew each other. Levi wasn’t a criminal. Levi worked for the Drug Licensing Agency.

Why the _hell_ hadn’t he just said so in the first place. Eren pulled harder at his arm. Levi held tight.

“Hey asshole, let go of my brother.” Mikasa’s voice rang out. She was all but steaming as she closed the last of the gap between her and the porch.  

Freezing in place, Eren stared at his sister. He didn’t notice when Levi’s grip loosened for an instant - just long enough for him to take Eren’s hand and twist their fingers together.

Gaping down at their clasped hands, Eren barely registered the sound he heard as Mikasa growling.

Levi tugged Eren back in against his side. “No.”

“Get away from Eren, you psychotic midget.” The only thing holding Mikasa back was Armin, but the look in his brother’s eyes as he carefully watched Levi told Eren that he didn’t have any better an opinion of Levi. The whole good first impression thing had not gone as planned.

No one moved as the last vehicle pulled up, but Eren could have sworn he saw Mikasa sigh even as he heard the man beside him let out a long breath.

A flash of all too familiar red and black out of the corner of his eye had Eren whipping his head around. The custom paint job and overabundance of chrome detail was as unmistakable as the driver’s ridiculous two-tone hair. For some reason, Jean was here too.

As he stepped down from his truck, Jean seemed to be wrestling with something around his neck, but Eren stopped worrying about him as the passenger side door opened and Hanji hopped out.

“I knew it, Riri! It _is_ you!” She started through the snow towards them, a huge grin on her face.

Eren felt a shock run through his body. Hanji had almost made it to them before he could form coherent words. “Wait, no way.” He stared at Levi, who scowled as he kept his eyes forward and said nothing.  “You’re Riri?”

He’d grown up listening to Hanji’s stories of Riri. As in Erwin, Mike Zacharius, and Hanji’s playmate. The Riri from all their old adventures at college and in the military. The one who had always been described as both nasty and violent, and who got grumpy if you brought up how short he was.

Turning to look at his siblings, Eren noticed that Mikasa’s glare hadn’t altered in the slightest. But then, she’d met him before, so she’d have known who he was as soon as she saw him. Armin was watching Eren, a hint of apology on his face – of course Armin knew him already too.

But Hanji’s friend Riri had never been to the farm, or Trost, so Eren had never met him.

Eyes zeroing in on their still clasped hands, Hanji beamed. “See, didn’t I tell you, Riri? I knew you and Eren would be perfect for each other!”

Eren’s mouth dropped open.

“Hanji.” Armin muttered as Mikasa’s eyes widened and she tried to swing around to face their adoptive mother.

“And here I’d almost given up on you getting you two to hook up.” Hanji wedged herself in between Mikasa and Armin, slinging her arms around their necks and dragging them forward with her.

Erwin broke in before Hanji reached the porch steps. “Levi, how badly are you injured?”

“You’re hurt?” Her whole body snapping to attention, Hanji’s face instantly went serious. She scanned her eyes over Levi. “Is that a bullet hole – Riri, you got shot?” She pulled her arms free of Armin and Mikasa and jumped up the short steps.

Trying to step back out of the way, Eren saw Armin pat Mikasa’s shoulder lightly before following Hanji. He felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. Hanji and Armin would know what to do. He deliberately forced away all his worries over who Levi was, and wasn’t. He wasn’t going to jail, and they’d deal with the rest once he wasn’t bleeding. “It’s been over an hour now. And he’s been moving around a lot.”

Levi squeezed Eren’s hand. “It’s not that bad.”

Hanji shook her head as her hands flew over Levi, checking his pulse and temperature before starting to unzip his coat. “And how would you know? You’ve never been shot before.”

“It is kind of ironic, after everything, you lose your bulletproof record on such an unimportant assignment.” Erwin spoke almost absently as he stepped up onto the porch.

Tolerating the hands that poked and prodded at him, Levi narrowed his eyes at Erwin. “It wasn’t supposed to be an assignment. I was minding my own damn business when some manipulative dickhead decided to give out a little too much information, and suddenly I had James hammering at my door.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say.” The gentle smile on Erwin’s face didn’t waver at all.

“I told you, I’m not doing this shit anymore.”

“We’ll have to cut his clothes off, and we need supplies.” Armin interrupted calmly. “We can use my room for now.”

“No way, lock him into one of the cells.” Mikasa called out, alarm in her voice, but Armin paid no attention as he lead the way into the house.

Levi didn’t let go of Eren’s hand as Hanji pulled him after her – or maybe Eren didn’t let go, he wasn’t sure anymore.  

Armin’s room was a flurry of activity. Finally forced to release Levi’s hand, Eren hugged his own to his chest as he stood back out of the way while they carefully eased Levi’s coat off his shoulders and started to cut away his shirt, The bullet wound was a little below Levi’s rib cage, off to one side of his stomach. The skin around it was coated in blood, but the hole itself was remarkably small.

Hanji had stepped around Levi to peel away the rest of the shirt. “Call Mike, tell him to bring his stuff.” She didn’t lift her eyes from her hands.

As Armin nodded and stepped away, tugging off his gloves, Eren finally caught a glimpse of Levi’s back. His knees went weak and he had to press his back into the wall to keep from sliding to the floor. The bullet had obviously gone all the way through and had torn loose a large chunk of flesh on its way out. His back was soaked in dark blood, making it hard to see where his skin ended and the exposed muscle underneath started.

“Get out, brat.” Raising his eyes, Eren saw Levi watching him, his eyes calm as Hanji fussed over his back. Straightening up from the wall, Eren locked his knees and tried to push the panic away.  

Armin glanced over at him as he held his phone to his ear. “Go on out, Eren. Send Mike in when he comes.”

“I’m fine-“ Eren started, but bit his lip as Levi raised an eyebrow at him.

Finally looking up, Hanji blinked at him from behind her thick glasses. “Yes, you don’t need to be here Eren. And you can get out too.” The last was directed at Erwin, still standing by the doorway.

As he let Erwin guide him out, Eren kept glancing back at Levi. It wasn't until the door slammed shut behind him that he realized he was still clutching his empty hand to his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone needed to know, Jean's truck is bright red with black flames. And it's oversized, with extra large wheels. He's also usually got the tassel from Mikasa's graduation cap hanging from his rear view mirror, but he stuffs it in the glove compartment if he thinks she might see it.


	19. Daylight Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren knows what Levi is now, but he can't stop wondering why Levi didn't tell him. He's hoping to get some answers, somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter. After this is the epilogue, and that's it!
> 
> Please do let me know what you think :)

* * *

 

Cloudless blue skies deepened as the pale winter sun slipped down behind the house, taking the last of its warmth with it. Eren sat curled up on the porch bench, his knees clutched to his chest and his eyes fixed on the darkening horizon above the frozen lake.

The sky was already freckled with the first stars when he shivered and finally stirred, glancing around. Grey dusk had settled in, and no one else seemed to be nearby. The clearing in front of the house was still full of cars, so neither the sheriff nor Jean had left while he’d been out of it. Mike Zacharius’s army jeep was still there too, but Eren knew he wouldn’t have missed him leaving.

The front door opened and Erwin stepped out. He cast a short glance at Eren before carrying on forward to lean against the railing. He lit a cigarette, letting the silence linger as he slowly took a deep drag, and blew a cloud of smoke out towards the lake.

Motion near the barn had them both turning their heads. Eren saw Mikasa clamber up from the bottom level and walk along the front, Jean close behind her. He must have gotten Hanji’s pet to let go of him somehow - the ring-tailed cat had a crush on him. He liked to plaster himself to Jean’s face if the idiot got too close to anyone else. Particularly Mikasa.

Mikasa paused halfway up the ramp to the barn’s main door, studying the ground for a long second. She glanced back once, to where Eren sat on the house porch, before carrying on into the barn with Jean.

It wasn’t until the door shut behind them both that Eren realized what she must have been looking at. He ducked his face into his knees. That was where Levi had been shot. There was likely a good deal of blood splattered over the snow.

Concentrating on evening out his breathing, he forgot about the sheriff until Erwin spoke.

“Are you cold? You should go in.”

Quickly looking up, Eren shook his head. “I’m fine.” Being trapped inside had been far worse than the temperature outside.

“He’ll be fine, you know.” Erwin’s deep voice was as calm as always.

“Yeah, I know.” Armin had already told him that Levi had been very, very lucky. He was going to be in pain, and he wouldn’t be able to be up and around for at least a few weeks, but he’d be okay.

As quiet settled back over the porch, Eren found his thoughts drifting back into the same endless track they’d been circling since that morning. He kept thinking over everything they’d said to each other, adding up everything he knew was true, and working out what he still didn’t know. Trying to understand why Levi hadn’t told him who and what he was. Trying not to imagine what else he might be hiding.

The flash of Erwin’s lighter as he lit a second cigarette yanked Eren back out of his thoughts, attracting his gaze away from the lake. He flushed as he realized Erwin had been studying him closely.

“Levi told me about you getting trapped in the stables.”

Eren hunched his shoulders, turning his face back towards the lake. “Yeah. That happened.”

“It can’t have been easy. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Shrugging, Eren let his eyes focus on the sky in front of them, watching the stars multiply as the day carried on fading. He tightened his arms around his legs, though he tried to make his voice as nonchalant as he could. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Eren struggled not to check if Erwin was still watching him. He hadn’t been the sheriff yet, but he’d certainly heard about what had happened - because of his connection to Hanji, if nothing else. He’d know about Eren’s claustrophobia, and his history.

He drew in a sharp breath. For the first time he realized Levi probably knew too, and suddenly the old, familiar sense of shame was stirring up again, deep in his stomach.

Deliberately, Eren sat up straight, shoving everything down and away, forcing himself to think of something, anything else. “You seem to know Levi really well.” His voice wasn’t quite steady, but apart from a brief, searching look, Erwin said nothing about it as he turned and settled back against a porch support.  

“Mike, Hanji and I would always see him around college. Somehow he was taking classes with all of us, even though we were all in different departments. He wouldn’t talk to anyone more than he had to. But then Hanji found him sleeping on a park bench one night, after a late lab, and she dragged him back to stay at our place.”

His lips twitched. “He’d never come home on his own, but between the three of us we could usually hunt him down wherever he’d holed up for the night. After a while he decided it was less hassle to just come home in the first place.”

Eren was fascinated. “He told me he cooked for his roommates at college. Because they were-”  He only just stopped himself, clamping his mouth shut.

This time, Erwin’s smile was big, genuine. “He said we were all slobs, right? We were never clean enough for him. But we were actually happy when he kicked us out and claimed the kitchen, it meant he’d finally decided to stay. And he’s a much better cook than any of us.”

“Yeah.” Eren settled his chin on his knees. He’d forgotten he’d originally started this as a distraction. He wanted to ask more, but he felt a little guilty, like he was asking things he shouldn’t. “Levi doesn’t seem to like to tell me this stuff. He never said anything about working for the police, or anything like that.” Eren huffed out a breath, remembering. “He told me he used to work in sales.”

Erwin took another drag of the cigarette, his lips faintly curved. “He’s always been like that. It took us nearly a year before we finally worked out he wasn’t actually enrolled at the university, he just snuck into whatever classes he was interested in. He did most of the homework too, just never turned it in. He also wasn’t eighteen yet, and he’d never finished high school -“ Pausing, he cocked his head to the side. “And now that I think about it, I’m not sure if he ever actually went to school, to be honest.

“He’s a private one. But as to not telling you about working with the DLA, I’d say it’s likely he probably still doesn’t consider that the real truth. He’s very good at undercover work, partly because he doesn’t disassociate himself from what he has to do when he takes those roles.”

He eyed Eren. “And as to what he told you, I’ve heard him say something like that before – I think that’s how he sees what he does. Selling names, selling information, selling drugs.”  He shrugged. “He usually tells the truth if he can, just not all of it.”

“He doesn’t lie very well.”

Erwin paused, looking curiously at Eren. “You think so?”

Eren nodded emphatically.

“Huh. Interesting.” Idly, Erwin stubbed out the last of the cigarette in his hand, before patting his shirt pocket and pulling out a crumpled white packet. He glanced down at it and evidently changed his mind, tucking it away again.

Or maybe it was already empty. This wasn’t the first time today Eren had seen him smoking – and it was the only sign that maybe he wasn’t as calm as he seemed on the surface. Eren had never understood why Erwin had left what had sounded like a very promising, very intense career in the military to take the job of sheriff in a relatively small county like Trost. He'd always thought there must be more to what he did than what was on the surface.

“Levi seemed to think you had something to do with that guy, James, coming after him.”

“I don’t see why he would assume that, I don’t know James at all.”

It wasn’t an answer, of course, but Erwin carried on before Eren could ask any more.

“I was worried when Levi disappeared off the radar, after he sent in a message saying he was heading into Trost with James. I hoped it was him when I heard someone was holed up out here.” He stood up, stretching, before starting back across the porch. “And I’m very glad it was. I think I’d like to see that gentleman you have in your basement. I have a few questions to ask him.”

His hand was on the screen door when he paused. “Oh, and I’d be happy to tell you anything you’d like to know about Levi. Make sure to tell him that, alright?”

Despite everything, Eren found himself smiling back at Erwin. “I will.”

They both stiffened at the burst of shouting from inside the house. Eren jumped up, quickly following Erwin in.

Mike was standing in the center of the room, quietly attempting to rip into Hanji. Eren heard him say something about the number of autopsies she’d attended not qualifying her to stick her hands inside living people’s bodies. Also something about not putting untested substances in bottles labeled as antiseptic when she didn’t know for sure they wouldn’t burn holes into people’s skin.

Sidling around them, Armin walked over to Eren. He smiled. “Go on in, you can see him, he’s awake.”

“Already?” Erwin asked, surprised. Eren was too.

Mike stopped mid diatribe, glancing back at Erwin over his shoulder. “The idiot wouldn’t let me put him completely under.” He said shortly.

“Of course he wouldn’t.” Hanji broke in.

Eren caught a glimpse of Mike’s eyes narrowing beneath his thick bangs. He turned back to Hanji, and they were well into it again before Eren had managed to reach the door to Levi’s room.

Stepping inside, he pulled the door quietly shut behind him and stood with his back pressed against the wall. His eyes scanned over Levi.

The bandages were wrapped around his broad chest nearly to one shoulder. He was pale, almost the same color as the pillow beneath his head. His eyes were closed, his black lashes fanning over his cheeks, and Eren was suddenly reminded of that first night when he hadn’t been sure if Levi would ever wake up.

His heart thudded in his throat, and he felt almost weak with relief when Levi’s eyes opened and latched onto him.

“What the hell are you doing over there? Come here, brat.”  He held out a hand, and Eren rushed across the room.

He wasn’t prepared at all when Levi yanked at his arm, toppling him over onto the bed, and he pushed against Levi’s hold, trying as delicately as possible to get back off without jostling Levi.

“Stop wiggling. Stay put.”

“Levi, I shouldn’t-“

“Fuck that. If I’m stuck in this stupid ass bed then I’m going to have you here with me too.”

Eren flushed, but slowly let himself relax against Levi’s side. Tentatively, he rested his arm on the man’s chest, trying to keep as far from any possible wound as possible. He tucked his face into Levi’s shoulder as Levi’s arm slipped around his back.

“I’m actually mad at you.” And he was. Underneath everything, he was hurt, upset, and a little bewildered that Levi had kept so much to himself.

He felt Levi’s chest heave in a slight sigh. “Fine. But I warned you, I’m not letting go.”

“No, that’s not- Why didn’t you just tell me the truth from the beginning?”

“I’m sorry.”

Eren huffed out a long breath, feeling the tension start easing from his shoulders despite his annoyance. “You can’t just say sorry every time you do something crappy.”

“Why not?” 

“Because-“ Eren opened and closed his mouth. “Well you can, but that means you have to try not to do it again.” He raised his head until he could look directly into Levi’s eyes. “So you have to tell me stuff. All the important things. About your work, and if anyone else might be coming after us. And why you were sleeping on park benches and sneaking into college classes.”

“Shitty toupee’s been talking, hasn’t he.”

“Wait, is that a toupee - seriously?” Eren’s eyes went wide.

Levi’s eyes warmed, his lips curved. “I’m not telling you.”

Eren pouted. “This is not getting off to a good start. You’re supposed to tell me everything.” The arm behind his back urged him to shift up higher on the bed, and Eren happily complied.

“Only the important things.”

“This _is_ important.” Indignant, Eren started to pull away.

Levi firmly planted his hand on the back of Eren’s head, pressing down until Eren was close enough for him to lift up and catch at Eren’s bottom lip with his teeth.

Eren was still scowling as he braced his weight on his arm. “This isn’t over.” He muttered against Levi’s lips.

“Hmm.” Levi’s hand stroked through Eren’s hair.

The door burst open behind them, and Eren jerked away, grimacing as Levi gave a low hiss at the sharp movement.  

“Levi, did that stuff really burn a hole- Oh, hey, Eren.”  

“Hi, Hanji.” Eren waved feebly, as he tried his best to subtly not look like he’d just been draped over the man lying beside him.

“I thought Mike was keeping you occupied.” Eren had never heard Levi’s voice sound quite so irritated. He didn’t dare look at his face.

“He went down to the basement. You didn’t mention you broke that guy’s hand?”

Eren blinked. “Oh, that was me. He came at me from behind and I just-”

“Really? Well done, Eren.” Hanji set her hands on her hips and grinned at both of them. “Levi, you’ve been such a good influence on him already. So I was thinking we should split the top floor, make it a suite for you two.”

Mikasa walked in, her eyes narrowing at Levi. “That creep is not staying in the same room as Eren.” 

Eren went rigid. “Don’t call him a creep.” He started up off the bed, only to be pulled up short as Levi’s hand gripped his shirt, tugging him back down.

Hanji wrapped an arm around Mikasa’s waist, tightly anchoring her in to her side. “Don’t worry Mikasa, we’ll make suites for you, and Armin too.” She tilted her head. “Maybe we should expand the basement some more…”

When Armin walked in, Levi was already turning Eren back around to face him, wrapping his arm around Eren’s neck to hold him securely.

“Hanji? That guy downstairs won’t stop crying, what did you do to him? Erwin is trying to get him to go and he just keeps crying and telling him all sorts of stuff he’s done and we can’t get him to shut up.

As Eren looked down at Levi’s face, he dimly heard Jean’s voice chime in from just outside the room. “Uh, Mikasa?  He’s biting me again, I can’t get him to let go -“

But Levi’s tongue was sliding along the seam of Eren’s lips, and pressing into his mouth. As Eren melted – carefully – against Levi, he heard nothing else at all.


	20. Spring (Epilogue) Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue (part 1)
> 
> Levi has been gone for nearly six months, and Eren is having trouble dealing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had hoped to post this all as one, but that didn't work out. So instead, here is half an epilogue :)
> 
> The second half is well on the way to being done, and I can't wait because after that I have a pageful of stories I want to write. But I wanted to do these guys justice, and give them lots and lots of fluffy time before I move on. 
> 
> So I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

The late morning sun streamed in through high, narrow windows, bouncing off of the dust and scraps of hay drifting in the still air before forming bright patches on the scuffed wooden floor.

The rhythmic shuffle of a lone pitchfork blended with the odd scrape of a hoof or snort from the barn’s occupants, as well as the occasional loud sigh from the solitary, brown haired young man working his way down the length of the building.

As he finished cleaning out the last stall, Eren absently glanced around to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. He started to heave out another long, deep sigh, when a gentle shove at the center of his back cut him off, knocking him forward a half step.

Turning back, Eren laughed softly when he found Lady Bee leaning her head over her stall door, watching him, her ears pricked forwards.

“I’m boring you too, am I?”

The horse bobbed her head as if in answer, and Eren smiled ruefully.

“Sorry Bee.” He reached back to scratch the base of her neck. She snuffled, blinking the soft brown eye closest to him as he reached her favorite spot. “I’ll do better, promise.” With one last pat, Eren walked away to finish cleaning up, resolving to try a little harder to stop moping, at least out loud.

It certainly wasn’t going to bring Levi back any faster. The only productive thing his constant brooding had managed to do was to drive his siblings crazy.

But Levi’s absence was a weight in Eren’s stomach that never seemed to go away. He’d been gone for far too long. As soon as Mike had cleared him to work, he’d been back out in the field - working with Erwin and bunch of faceless and nameless others Eren still knew nothing about - settling the most volatile of his previous cases.

They talked whenever Levi thought it was safe, but that wasn’t enough. Not after those first few days when it had been the two of them alone, or even after the long weeks of Levi’s recuperation - despite all the annoyances of Eren’s ever-present, ever-interfering family.

He couldn’t wait for Levi to come back. And yet he was also dreading it.

Already forgetting his new resolution, Eren sighed heavily, bracing his forehead against the overhead cabinets as he scrubbed his hands in the sink.

When Levi got back they’d have to deal with all the other issues.

Eren had tried to deal with the most obvious problem on his own. He’d taken his bike into town, often, early this past winter. He’d spent hours attempting to walk down crowded streets, doing his best to stop himself from freaking out when dense walls of strangers would close in around him. He’d tried to go into tiny, windowless stores, to actually sit inside the restaurants.

There was absolutely no way he would agree to see any of the counselors his family constantly tried to talk him into, but all he’d managed to do on his own was seriously embarrass himself over and over again. 

Still, he kept trying. Forcing himself to walk into every part of the farm that he’d always avoided, spending far too much time staring into the little generator room under the barn, trying to talk himself into taking those last few steps through the doorway.

The beginning of the end had come when he’d shut himself into the back of the van and locked the doors behind him. He’d panicked, hyperventilating and eventually blacking out. He’d been missing for nearly an hour before Mikasa had found him and pulled him free. After that, she and Armin had refused to allow him out of their sight.

Which had been a nightmare, as always.

Eventually Hanji had badgered him into seeing that what he’d been doing wasn’t healthy, or helping at all. She’d also talked his prison guards into backing off, and everything had settled back to normal.

Eren slowly dried his hands. He didn’t notice when he let out another deep sigh. Levi was changing his whole life around to be with Eren, and all Eren could manage to do was worry about how he was going to mess it all up. He irritated himself, how could he expect Levi to be able to stand him?

And yet, more than anything else, he wanted Levi to come back. He missed him so badly he could barely sleep at night.

Stepping back into the main area, he’d started towards the barn door when he spotted the small, dark haired figure waiting for him in the aisle

Gasping, Eren froze in place, one foot hovering just off the floor.

Levi stood, arms crossed and a tiny smile on his face as he watched Eren gape back at him. He looked calm, and in control, and as if he’d never been gone.

The smirk disappeared and Levi’s eyes widened as Eren let out a whoop and leaped across the barn towards him.

Levi braced himself with his arms ready to catch Eren, and everything would have probably worked out if Eren hadn’t tripped halfway. Suddenly falling, Eren didn’t stop, instead throwing himself the last few feet to tackle Levi around his middle, knocking him back into the stall post behind him. He wrapped his arms tightly around Levi’s waist beneath his open jacket, and buried his face in Levi’s shirt as they slid the rest of the way down to land on the floor.  

Catching his breath, Levi huffed out a laugh. “Hello, brat.”

 “You’re finally back.” Eren’s voice was muffled against Levi’s stomach, but he didn’t want to move enough to look up. He felt tears prickling at his eyes, and he scrubbed his face into soft cotton, feeling the solid muscle underneath. “I missed you.”

“Idiot.” Cold fingers traced lightly over Eren’s skin as Levi stroked his hair back from his face.

Tightening his grip, Eren snuggled in closer, curling up on the floor between Levi’s spread legs. He felt a knee, solid and real, braced behind his back and he sighed again. Happily this time.

“You’re staying this time, right?”

Levi’s hand paused, and then carried on ruffling through his hair. “For a while.”

Pulling away, Eren sat up so he could study Levi’s face. They were so close that he could see the deepened shadows beneath his eyes. For the first time, he realized Levi looked very tired. He was almost as pale as during that first week after being shot.

Eren frowned, and had lifted his hand to check Levi’s forehead when a large, soft nose snuffled at his hair.

He looked up. They’d landed right by Lady Bee’s stall, and she watched them curiously, her neck stretched out over her door. As he looked down along the aisle, Eren realized most of the larger animals had been attracted by the commotion and were watching them closely. He glanced back towards the front of the barn, and wasn’t surprised to see Santa’s hairy white nose poking out from under his stall.

Still grinning, he turned back towards Levi. He had barely an instant to register the look in Levi’s eyes before strong arms were suddenly yanking him forward, and Levi’s mouth was pressed against his with an almost bruising pressure. Using his grip on Eren’s neck to hoist himself up off the floor, Levi plastered himself against Eren’s front.

Eren’s reactions were only a split second behind, and he threw himself into the kiss wholeheartedly. He sucked at Levi’s lower lip and clenched his hands in his shirt, hiking him up, trying to find a way to lessen what space was left between them.

When Levi slipped down to bite just under his jaw, Eren heard himself whimper. Losing his balance as he tried to shift to his knees, he fell back, landing on floor, taking Levi with him.

Straddling Eren’s waist, Levi braced himself with his arms on either side of the tousled brown head. He ignored the hands insistently tugging at his shoulders, lips curving as he shook his head.

“Any more than this and at least one of your siblings is bound to come bursting in. Or Hanji.”

Blinking, Eren rolled his head to follow Levi’s glance towards the door. It took him a moment to get his thoughts in order enough to wonder why they hadn’t been interrupted yet. And then another before he realized the most likely reason. “It’s okay, they don’t know you’re back yet.”

“I doubt that.” Shifting back, Levi tugged at Eren’s arms. “And in any case, I’m not doing anything on this dirty ass floor.”

Eren sat up, pouting. “You started it.”

Levi paused, angling his head as he studied Eren’s expression. “Yeah. You’re just so fucking adorable.” He got to his feet, not commenting on the flush that spread over Eren’s cheeks. “Up. Time to go. I was hoping to get you out of here early this morning, but Erwin was being an ass.”

“Wait, we’re going somewhere?” Eren stood, eyes on Levi as he brushed the worst of the dirt off his jeans.

“I don’t want anyone getting in the way of me having you, for a few days at least.” Levi glanced back at Eren, the intensity in his eyes not quite matching the calm of his expression. “That work for you?”

Something hot clutched in Eren’s belly. He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Without another word, Levi turned on his heel.

Eren bit his lip, his feet firmly fixed to the floor as he watched Levi walk away. The fuzzy haze that had drifted over his mind - making everything but Levi seem blurry and unimportant - was suddenly slipping away, leaving uncomfortable reality behind. If they were going somewhere, that meant a car. Eren really didn’t want to screw everything up so soon, but unless Levi was willing to drive everywhere with the doors left wide open Eren wasn’t sure they were even going to make it out of sight of the house.

Levi reached the door, and glanced back at Eren, one eyebrow arched. Taking a deep breath, Eren made himself start moving. As he stepped out onto the ramp, his eyes anxiously shot towards the clearing in front of the house.

There was no car there, or anything at all, just grass and dirt.

Confused, he turned back and found Levi’s eyes on him as he stood at the base of the ramp, just in front of a parked motorcycle.

It was huge, entirely black, and all long, sleek lines. It looked like it was meant to go fast – it made Eren’s respectable 250cc Suzuki look like a toy. It also had two helmets sitting on the seat.

Eren lifted wide eyes to meet Levi’s bland expression. “We’re taking a bike?”

“Is that a problem?”

Shaking his head, Eren felt relief sweep through him. “No, not a problem at all.” As Levi turned away, reaching into the panniers at the back of the bike, Eren couldn’t keep the wide grin from spreading across his face, or the bounce out of his step as he walked the rest of the way down the ramp. He circled the bike, trying to place the model – he was pretty sure it was a Kawasaki of some kind, but it wasn’t entirely. It was definitely the type of bike Armin liked to call a crotch rocket. “Is that a ZZR1400?”

“Mostly.”

“No way.” Eren angled his head as he tried to figure out what was original and what had been modified. The thing was all black, not the slightest hint of chrome or silver. Distracted, he didn’t see Levi coming towards him until a strong arm thumped a bundle of leather and fabric into his stomach.

“Put this on.”

As he unfolded the jacket and slid his arms into the buttery soft sleeves, Eren saw Levi glance up towards the roof of the barn, and then towards the house.

Of course. There was no way Eren’s family didn’t know Levi was here. They’d covered the whole property with security systems – they’d bought out every camera in Trost while Eren had been stranded with Levi, which was why they’d needed Jean’s truck to help bring it all up to the ranch after the roads cleared.

They had probably spotted Levi as soon as he started circling the lake. Eren looked suspiciously towards the house. He couldn’t see anything through the tinted windows, but he was sure they were being watched. For whatever reason his family must have decided to not get in the way, this time.

Levi stepped into his line of vision, pulling the helmet down over Eren’s head so he couldn’t see anything at all for a split second.

“Okay?” Levi studied Eren carefully through the clear visor.

Eren wasn’t sure if he felt more comforted or embarrassed by Levi’s obvious awareness of his anxieties. Levi’s matter of fact tone helped, but it couldn’t quite ease the sting of shame. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” With a nod, Levi tightened the strap under Eren’s chin, before fastening all the claps on the jacket that Eren hadn’t bothered with. “Gloves are in your pockets.”

He turned away, slinging his leg over the bike, and Eren forgot all about his embarrassment as his jaw dropped, safely hidden beneath his helmet.

The bike dwarfed Levi, but it didn’t matter. As the man braced one foot on the ground, leaning back to pull on his own helmet, Eren was dangerously close to drooling. Levi was attractive – beautiful, almost - all on his own, but dressed in fitted black and dark, dark green, with tall boots that strapped all the way up to his knees, and confidently straddling the large bike, he was beyond anything Eren had ever seen before. 

“Coming?”

Swallowing the saliva that had pooled in his mouth, Eren hurried forward and climbed up behind Levi. Slipping his arms around the muscular waist, he found himself grinning again. “Can you teach me to drive this?”

“No.”

Eren pressed in tighter. “Please?”

Levi said nothing as he revved the bike, but just before they took off, Eren could swear he heard him say something like ‘Maybe’.


	21. Spring (Epilogue) Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final final epilogue chapter. Happy ending and all that comes with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a monster to write, but I very much hope everybody enjoys it. It's also super late and I'm not sure I can make myself read through this again (plus sleep required before work tomorrow), so I sincerely apologize for any typos, once I've recovered I'll read through it and edit it a little more!
> 
> In any case, finally, here is the fluffy end chapter I've been promising :)

Eren had no idea where they were going, but he really didn’t care.

He knew they had headed east, through Trost - gliding between the traffic so smoothly it seemed as though everybody else was standing still. He knew he loved the bike, and the way Levi had them flying once they hit the long, empty miles of highway on the far side of the city. Swerving around cars on busy streets had been fun, but this was even better. Trees zipped by, buildings were blinks of color at the corner of his eye, the fields were long, formless blurs, and only his certainty that in any way loosening his grip on Levi’s waist would have him flying off the back of the bike kept Eren from throwing his arms up in the air out of sheer joy.

As it was, he was grinning so hard he figured his jaw would be aching for days. Clinging to Levi as they streaked over the roads, moving faster than Eren had ever gone before, he almost forgot to worry about stupid things like whether he’d freak out and they’d have to turn back around as soon as they got to wherever they were going.

The last of the sun was just dropping below the horizon when they slowed to a more reasonable speed, easing into the thicker traffic on the outer fringes of Mitras, quickly heading in towards the brightly lit city center. Long rows of terraced houses gradually thinned out, making way for streets lined by angular concrete office buildings. Everything around them slowly seemed to grow taller and taller the further in they went, until Eren found himself with his arms clamped tightly around Levi’s waist, his eyes fastened on the night sky high above as the towering buildings closed in around them, eating away at the patch of near darkness.

The knot in his stomach tightened, making itself impossible to ignore. 

His eyes, and mind, snapped back to ground level when he realized Levi was finally pulling off from the street, coming to a stop in front of a broad, red brick building that looked like it predated the shiny black skyscraper snuggled up behind it by a good few hundred years, at least.

Eren climbed off the bike and tugged at the strap of his helmet, catching a glimpse of a hotel name he didn’t recognize carved into the stone façade, before getting distracted by a pair of uniformed valets scuffling as they raced to get to Levi’s keys. A third, evidently senior valet stepped in, glaring them back before taking the keys and both helmets from Levi.

She smiled. “Welcome back, sir.”

Eren blinked. Levi just nodded.

As they stepped into the spacious lobby, Eren’s eyes were drawn to the deep blue, glass tiled ceiling arching gracefully high up above them, an intricately spiked chandelier suspended from the center and stretching nearly back to the polished stone floor.

Neatly dressed receptionists sat behind a long counter. They looked up, smiling in greeting, as Levi gripped Eren’s wrist and pulled him through to the bank of elevators. Eren didn’t even have time to panic – he hadn’t been inside an elevator in years – before he realized that the shiny, opaque black tubes he’d thought they were stepping into were actually entirely clear glass from the inside.

As Levi swiped a card over the panel beside the door and the elevator hummed into motion, all Eren could do was stare down at the lobby floor as it slowly fell away.

The motorcycle could have just been coincidence, but Eren was growing more and more convinced that Levi must have planned this out, every little detail making this as easy on Eren as possible. It was amazing. He was so uncommunicative, and yet so good at making Eren feel cherished.

All without ever saying anything much more affectionate than ‘brat’.

“Levi.” Eren tugged at his still trapped wrist to get Levi’s attention, almost losing his train of thought the moment pale blue eyes lifted to his. He swallowed. “Thank you. You just-” He pushed back his messy helmet-hair with his free hand, trying to think of some way to not embarrassingly express his… whatever he was feeling.  

In the end, all he managed was a crooked, slightly awkward smile.

Levi seemed to go very still, his eyes fixing on Eren’s mouth. He glanced up at the indicator LED panel running all the way around the ceiling, currently telling them they were on the third floor, and then let out a long sigh.

Eren’s heart thumped in his chest, hard.

He’d almost forgotten why they were coming to a hotel in the first place. He definitely remembered now. Just barely resisting the urge to press his hand to his suddenly warm cheeks, he turned away to look through the glass walls just in time to watch as the elevator seemed to slide up through the arched lobby ceiling.  

His mouth fell open on a soft gasp.  

He’d seen photographs of course, and TV, and films. Seeing it in person was something far beyond. The city spread out in front of them like a massive, living beehive, made entirely of cement and steel and glass. As the elevator sped upwards, Eren stepped forward, almost without realizing, watching with wide eyes as impossible numbers of lights flickered across the black bulk of the city’s skyline, occasionally dotted by patches of brightly colored billboards and neon signs. He pressed his free hand against the glass as he stared down at the countless headlights streaming in complex patterns along the streets.

After so many years of staying holed up at the ranch, he’d forgotten how many people there were in the world. It was almost overwhelming, even at this distance. It was oddly comforting too, though he couldn’t work out why.

They kept climbing. Eren tore his eyes away from the city in front of them to look to the side, realizing for the first time that their elevator car was one of many running through clear tubes set into the side of the black tower that had crowded up behind what he’d thought was the hotel. If anything, the building seemed even taller than he’d imagined from the ground. The LED panel told him they were on the sixty-third floor and he couldn’t tell how much further they had to go.

He turned back to the man still holding on to his wrist, his eyes wide, and found Levi watching him.

“Ah-.” Eren tried to compose his face into something a little less obviously awestruck, trying not to come across as completely inexperienced. “It’s a nice view.” As if Levi hadn’t already seen him with his nose all but mashed up against the glass.

The corner of Levi’s mouth crooked up. “It is.”

Grateful that the elevator chose that moment to ease to a stop, Eren turned away as the doors slid open. Levi finally let go of Eren’s wrist as they stepped out into a wide, but very short hallway. Eren glanced around, his feet sinking into plush carpet, and frowned as he realized the hall was completely empty.  There was no furniture, the wallpapered walls were completely bare, there was nothing but a single door at the far end of the hall.

And then Levi was swiping his card over the handle, the door clicked open, and Eren knew he wasn’t going to have to worry about his claustrophobia tonight.

The hotel room was almost the size as the bottom floor of his house, and was as far from small and enclosed as anything he could have hoped for. High ceilings drew his eyes towards the far wall, and his jaw dropped, for a moment more than half convinced that the room was completely open to the night sky outside.

It took him another second to realize it was an illusion, created by the way the floor, walls, and ceiling all angled away sharply just before reaching the massive single pane of glass that spanned the whole of the outside wall.

It was a good illusion. The room looked like it went on forever.

Soft lamps lit key points, highlighting a small kitchen, several richly furnished sitting areas, and a huge, completely over-the-top, canopied bed. The thing stood on a raised dais that curved out from one side of the room, and looked like it belonged in some old storybook; all solid dark wood, draped in white linen that trailed down over each post to puddle at the floor.

Distracted by the oversized bed, it took Eren a second to register Levi tugging at the buckles of his jacket.

“Any problem with the room?” Levi’s hands didn’t pause as they worked their way down Eren’s front.

Eren blinked, realizing Levi had already stripped off his own jacket. “Of course not. This place is amazing.”

“Good.” Levi yanked at Eren’s jacket, throwing it on the stand beside the door before kneeling at Eren’s feet, his fingers quickly pulling apart the laces of his boots. “Let’s fuck then.”

Eren lost his balance as he jerked backwards. “What do you…hey!” His breath whooshed out as Levi caught him around the waist and hoisted him up over his shoulder. He turned and started across the room, one arm wrapped behind Eren’s thighs, the other tugging at his boots.

Head bouncing, and a hard shoulder digging into his stomach with every stride, Eren couldn’t help but grin. He braced his hands against Levi’s back, craning his neck around. “Really, Levi?” He wiggled experimentally, but Levi’s grip on his legs was firm.

“Just stay put.” Levi dropped the boots, and his free hand shifted to pat Eren’s butt.

“I can walk.”

“Not fast enough.”

Eren felt a laugh bubbling up in his chest, mixed with anticipation and slight nerves. He’d forgotten what it was like, being with Levi. How happy it made him.

But when Levi walked past the stairs that led up to the bed, Eren lost his smile, and his eyes widened. “You’re not planning on making me have one of those extreme showers right _now_ , are you?” He twisted around, trying to see where they were going.

“No. You take too long.” Levi kept walking. “Remind me to teach you how to shower properly.”

“I know how to shower!”

Levi snorted. “Sure you do.”

Before Eren could think of a decent response, Levi took two steps down, and then finally came to a halt. As he felt himself being pulled forward off of Levi’s shoulder, Eren tried to see what Levi would consider more urgent than the bed, or the shower, or even a couch. They were near the window, and surrounded by a bright blue glow, but he couldn’t see anything else. Even trying to see a reflection in the window was useless – the only thing the treated glass showed was sky.

He was relieved it didn’t look like a bathroom, at least.

It wasn’t until he was nearly upright, Levi’s hands at his waist still holding him up, that he realized something was wrong. His toes were reaching for the ground, and there was nothing there.

Their eyes met. Levi’s lips curved. “Hold your breath.”

“Wh-”

Levi let go.

Eren fell, splashing down into a deep pool of warm water. As it closed over his head, he braced his feet on the floor and came spluttering back up to the surface, shaking his head and pushing back the hair that had fallen over his face.

Levi stood at the edge of the pool, his hands unbuttoning his shirt, heavy lidded eyes fixed on Eren. “Take off your clothes.”

“Was this really necessary?” Eren huffed, hands on hips as he tried to scowl up at Levi. The effect was ruined somewhat when he had to brush away the hair that had fallen back down over his eyes.

“It seemed like the fastest way to get you at least somewhat clean.”

The small circular pool was shallow enough that the softly churning water only reached partway up Eren’s chest. He glanced down at the soaked fabric now clinging to his body. “You could have let me take my clothes off first.”

“They were filthy too.” Levi pulled off his shirt and dropped it on the floor behind him.

“That is _so_ not a good reason.” Eren couldn’t hold on to his irritation when he looked up and saw the broad smirk on Levi’s face. He was being laughed at. He couldn’t believe how much he’d missed the way Levi laughed at him. “I don’t remember you being this impatient before.”

“I don’t see you stripping.” Levi’s voice was muffled as he pulled his undershirt up and over his head.

Eren’s mind went blank, his eyes fixed on Levi’s now completely exposed chest.  Sharply defined muscles shifted beneath pale skin as Levi started working at his belt.

And then Eren drew in a suddenly shaky breath as his attention snagged on the too-familiar, round, pink scar on one side of Levi’s firm belly, and the long, thin red line next to it that he knew hadn’t been there before.

“We’re not going to get anywhere tonight if you just stand there staring like an idiot.”

Blinking, Eren slowly looked up. Levi’s eyes were calm, and Eren knew he’d realized exactly what was running through Eren’s head.

“Get naked, brat.”

Eren blew out a long breath, forcing down the worry and concentrating on pasting a nonchalant expression on his face. He lifted his hands to pull off his tee, the wet, stretchy fabric quickly trapping his arms. He huffed out a deliberately exaggerated sigh. “Seriously, this is going to take way longer than it would have now.”

“Uh huh. Stop complaining.” Levi’s pants were unbuttoned, and he leaned over, pushing everything, including his underwear, down and off. He stood up straight, completely naked, already half aroused.

Eren’s mouth went dry. His eyes lingered, and the only though in his mind was that there was too much space between them. “Levi, hurry.” His voice wasn’t entirely steady.

Levi stepped off the edge into the water, the wave pushing Eren back a step. When he stood, slicking back his hair, the water was all the way up over his shoulders. He half walked, half swam closer. “Useless. You haven’t even taken anything off yet.”

 “It’s your fault.” Eren wiggled his awkwardly trapped arms. “I’m all wet.”

“Hmmm.” Levi moved closer and experimentally pulled at the shirt. “Maybe this isn’t so bad.” He slid his arms behind Eren’s neck and hitched himself up out of the water until his eyes were even with Eren’s.

Bracing his legs to keep them both upright as Levi’s knees clasped his sides tightly, Eren scowled as he wished he’d tried a little harder to free his arms.

The corner of Levi’s mouth lifted. “You’re so fucking cute.”

Eren couldn’t stop the way his scowl deepened. “I’m not _cute_.”

“Really.” Levi leaned in and bit lightly at Eren’s bottom lip, pulling back before Eren could do more than duck forward to try and catch his mouth in a kiss. “I think you’re adorable as shit.”

He let go, falling back and diving down, nearly invisible beneath the shifting surface of the water.

Eren’s eyes widened as felt a hand firmly stroke over the fly of his jeans before starting on the buttons at his waistband. He went back to struggling with his shirt, but maybe because it somehow seemed to have doubled in fabric over the last minute, or maybe because he couldn’t quite think straight, it didn’t go very well.

The hands had his pants unzipped and were pushing them down over his hips, before sliding around beneath his boxers, digging into firm flesh and then pushing his underwear down too. With water constantly swirling around him, jeans around his thighs, and his shirt holding his arms up around his head, Eren whimpered. The whimper turned into a gasp as he felt hands sliding over his butt, into the divide between, and the jolt that ran through him when a finger firmly pressed inside nearly had his knees buckling. 

The hands pulled away, and he couldn’t see anything through the tee wrapped around his face, but he heard a soft laugh as Levi came back up to the surface and realized his problem.

A moment later, hands were pulling the shirt, gently extracting his arms and tugging it off over his head. 

As soon as he was free, Eren threw his arms around Levi, capturing his mouth as he hoisted him up against his front. Levi’s hands came up, threading tightly into Eren’s hair as he held his head in place, his own angled so he could thrust his tongue deep into Eren’s mouth.  Enthusiastically, Eren matched Levi, suckling at Levi’s lips, copying his tongue’s movements. He dropped his hands to Levi’s butt, pulling him in tight, and felt Levi’s erection, hard against his stomach.

Levi did something, a kind of fluid motion that had his whole body almost undulating against Eren, and Eren’s knees lost all strength.

As they went under, Eren’s eyes tightly shut and their mouths still fused together, all he could feel was the soft buffeting of the warm water around them, and Levi. Hands tightened in his hair, almost painfully, but it sent another jolt of heat through him.

Eren was gasping for air when they finally came back up to the surface, and he was happy to see that Levi’s breathing wasn’t all that steady either as he gripped Eren’s wrist and led him to the other side of the pool – Eren waddling with the jeans still halfway up his thighs.

At this end, the water was much shallower, so when Levi turned him around and pushed at his chest, backing him against the edge of the pool, the lip of the wall was only a little above the back of his knees.

Eren sat, hitching himself up as Levi started pulling at his jeans.

Despite everything, he found himself laughing as the wet fabric stuck, and he had to brace himself against the tile floor to keep from sliding back in when Levi yanked.

“See, I told you so.”

“Shut it, brat.”

Finally free, Eren watched Levi throw the pants out of the pool, and then move to stand between Eren’s knees.  The air was slightly cold against his skin, and Eren shivered as he looked up at Levi.

Levi didn’t hesitate. He pushed Eren back until Eren had to brace his upper body on his arms to keep from falling backwards. Levi's eyes were locked on Eren’s as he reached down between Eren's thighs and slid his finger back into his ass.

Waves of heat ran up from Eren’s groin all the way through his body. His back arched as Levi kept going, pulling his finger out and then pushing it in, keeping the motion shallow, but not stopping, even when Eren’s arms gave out and he fell back to lie flat on the floor.

It wasn’t enough, and Eren felt his hips pushing up against Levi’s hand, trying to get him to go in deeper.

Levi lifted Eren’s legs up out of the water, bending them double over Eren’s body. He braced his free arm on the floor as he finally pushed his finger in as far as it would go, watching Eren’s face intently while he probed inside.

When he brushed over Eren’s prostate, Eren couldn’t hold in his moan, and the deep satisfaction in Levi’s face had him reaching up, wrapping his hands behind Levi’s head and pulling him down low enough to press their mouths together.

Levi smiled down at him. “See. Fucking adorable.”

Eren almost choked, Levi used the opportunity to pull away, letting Eren’s legs drop as he stretched up past Eren’s head to grab a brown paper bag that Eren hadn’t noticed at all.

Levi pulled out a tube, and a slim foil packet, and Eren was too far gone to feel any embarrassment as he watched Levi pour the lube over his hand.

Yanking Eren’s hips to the very edge of the pool, Levi slid his arms behind Eren’s knees, bending his legs back into position. A second later, Eren was hissing as a hand closed firmly around him, stroking along his length before lightly palming the tip.

As Levi’s slick hand worked him over, trailing back down to his butt, slipping only just inside before moving back up to stroke over his shaft, Eren’s head rolled restlessly on the floor, and his fingernails dug into the lines between the tiles. He heard himself whimpering, but all he could do was feel.

Finally, Levi pulled his hand away, and a moment later Eren felt the pressure building as Levi pushed himself in. Eren turned his face to the side as he felt himself stretching around the thick head, panting as he tried to relax through the almost-pain.

Gently, Levi rocked his hips, slowly easing all the way in.

As waves of sensation rolled up his spine, Eren opened eyes he hadn’t realized he’d shut, and looked up into Levi’s face. He was sweating. Eren wasn’t sure he’d ever seen actual beads of sweat on Levi before.

Levi pulled back, and then pushed back in, still slow, but deep. Eren watched the concentration on his face, fascinated, until he realized he was finding it harder and harder to focus on anything as Levi locked his arms around Eren’s thighs, holding him in place as his hips started moving faster, pounding into Eren in short, shallow thrusts that had him hitting Eren’s prostate.

Eren caught one more glimpse of Levi’s face, his pupils so large his eyes looked almost black, and then he couldn’t see anything anymore, and his hands were over his face as he cried out every time he felt Levi pushing in. Whimpering, he arched his hips up, hot shocks running through him and rushing over his skin.

He heard Levi growling as his hips thrust roughly against Eren’s, and then his hand was gripping Eren's erection, quickly pumping up and down as Eren came, his whole body jerking beneath Levi’s.

He felt Levi pull out, but didn’t bother trying to move. As he lay there, eyes shut, concentrating on breathing, Eren wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to move again.

When he thought he might at least have his vision back, he opened his eyes to find Levi watching him, arms braced on either side of his hips. His eyes were calm, watchful, slightly at odds with the flush still riding high on his cheeks.

“Hi.”

Levi’s lips twisted. “Hello, brat.”

Eren was too sleepy to do more than scowl as he remembered. “I'm not adorable.” 

"Really." He caught a glimpse of one of Levi's eyebrows arching up, just before he let his eyes drooped shut.

He felt himself drifting to sleep, still lying on the tile floor. “Or cute.”

He didn’t hear Levi’s response, just what sounded like the wrinkling of a paper bag, but after what might have been a minute, or maybe a lot longer, he felt hands pulling at him. He muttered a protest, but the hands didn’t stop.

Reluctantly opening his eyes, Eren blinked as he realized Levi somehow had a bar of soap in his hands. He sighed, but obediently sat upright at the edge of the pool. He shivered as soapy hands stroked over his chest and down his arms.

Eren blinked again as he glanced down. “Hey, you’re still hard.”

“Yeah.” Levi pulled Eren forward into the water, turning him so he could run the soap over his back. Eren shuddered as hands stroked down over his butt.  

By the time they were both washed and dried, and finally lying in the big bed, Eren wasn’t the slightest bit sleepy anymore.

Levi snuggled up behind him, his erection nestled against the small of his back, and Eren felt something that might have been a kiss at the top of his spine. He remembered thinking that Levi was uncommunicative. He wasn’t sure that was exactly right, but he knew for certain that Levi wasn’t at all undemonstrative.

Twisting around, he turned until he could face Levi. “I’m not letting you go away again. Just so you know.”

A thin brow arched up. “No?”

Eren shook his head. “Nope. You’ll have to work out some other way of handling your stuff.”

Levi eyed him for a moment, and then he seemed to come to some kind of decision. He sat up and raised one of Eren’s legs, holding it up as he straddled Eren’s other thigh.

“Levi, are you trying to change the subject?”

“No.” Levi positioned himself at Eren’s entrance and slowly pressed himself in. “This is completely unrelated.”

Eren gasped, his hand clutching at the sheets. “I’m serious, Levi. I won’t-” He let out a long moan as Levi slid almost all the way out, and then pushed back in. “I won’t let you go.”

“I won't be gone long.”

“But-”

“And then I won't be going anywhere.”

Eren blinked up at Levi. He grinned. "Someday you might get irritated with me.”

Levi snorted, pushed in a little harder. “I always do.”

Eren caught a shaky breath. “But really.”

“Probably. Don’t care.”

“So you won’t go anywhere?”

“No, you idiot.” Levi leaned forward, pushing Eren’s leg all the way back as he leaned into him, his hips still slowly moving.

“I’m not an idiot.” Eren felt something tingling up his spine as a strong shudder ran through him. He tried to sound indignant. “You know, I could be sleepy. Maybe I should just go to sleep right now.”

“So sleep.” Eren couldn’t hold back a laugh that turned into a moan as it made him tighten around Levi.

“But if you really aren’t going to sleep yet, then I’m just going to help myself to your ass.”

Eren couldn't hold back his laugh. “Okay." And very soon he lost track of all conversation as Levi really did help himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to fit all sorts of things into this epilogue, and I didn't manage all of them, but I hope I got enough to make sure it's clear that these guys have their happy ending. 
> 
> I have a huuuuge list of fics I've been itching to write, but maybe at some point I'll need to work on some other story with these two. I still have so many notes and ideas and history that didn't fit in this plot anywhere! But for now, this is it, and I hope you all enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fanfic. please be kind, but I very much welcome constructive criticism :)
> 
> my tumblr username is afternoonteawithme, if you wanna come talk to me there.


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